Youth Wars Part 1: Pilot
by Exar Sunrider
Summary: In the future after the death of the First Order, Jedi have emerged from the shadows and the New Republic was established. In the midst of the peace, a trio of young, abnormally powerful teen Jedi learn of rumors that the sith lords have also returned. The Jedi are dispatched throughout the galaxy to either confirm the rumors, or turn them down.
1. Chapter 1

_**This is my first-ever fanfiction; it isn't the best, but I'm building up to something huge. The wait will be worth it, and it won't be very long; I already have "Youth Wars 2" and "3" and two prequels made already. So please enjoy.**_

Youth Wars Part 1: Pilot

(Like a TV series 'pilot.' It's just mainly the beginning.)

Chapter 1: Mustafar

A remodeled Tantive shuttle flew through the Kashyyyk atmosphere, making its way to the surface. The shuttle landed safely on the landing platform, but the shuttle needed repairing. The Jedi trio exited their shuttle, ready to give their report to their leaders. These three Jedi had been on a quest to find out if rumors of sith returning to the galaxy are true.

The whole Jedi team consisted of these: Exar Sunrider, an orange and black tattooed Zabrak warrior; Aang, a powerful Besalisk who is older than he appears; and Jo, a comedic cyborg; Rye and Erickson, two wise, twin brothers who lead the Jedi trio.

Exar was young, but headstrong and powerful. He rarely lost a fight when he used his brain and muscles, which was often. He wore the remains of a black robe he wore when he was a "beast" on Dathomir II. It had some rips here and there, but managed to stay in good condition. The cape, featured on the robe, was torn and shredded at its halfway point, making it elbow-length. He had a belt around his waist so the rest of his robe wouldn't get in his way.

Jo was a cyborg but somewhat "touched in the head". He was not one to get distracted often, but when he noticed a spot, in conversation, open for humor, he never passed it up. His robotic parts were his arms, his left shin, and a little more than the left half of his head _(his nose, some of his mouth, and the entire left half of his forehead)_ ,and most of his torso. Joe wore a pale, traditional Jedi robe. His robe's sleeves were ripped off, and he never bothered to get traditional Jedi boots, because he had boot jets.

Aang, last but not least, was arguably the most powerful of the three. He was the oldest of them and had been on many adventures and fought in many battles. Aang was disciplined throughout his life, resulting in his becoming, as said 'arguably', one of the most powerful warriors the galaxy ever knew. Adding to that, he learned to use the force in certain extraordinary ways.

Rye and Erickson were more powerful than each other member of their team, hence their being the leaders. Rye and Erickson were the same in many ways. They were both excellent leaders, they knew how to win certain battles, and were both always there for their still-learning team. The twins had little differences though. Rye was always steadfast and determined to get things done, when there was something to get done. While Erickson always liked to take time to do other things: tinker, meditate, this and that.

Making their way to their base, the Jedi trio noticed another ship, that they didn't see as often, on the platform, a ship they recognized to be under the ownership of a smart friend of Rye's. The friend's name was Ephraim. Ephraim was not force-sensetive, but was a smart person and mainly loved to repair and fix things in his spare time. He was medium height and as muscular as someone his age gets. Ephraim always wore a comfortable, gray Republic uniform. The uniform was a gray long-sleeve shirt and pants with a red stripe outlining it.

The Jedi found themselves at the entrance of their small, efficient temple in the forest. The temple used to be a base for the Wookies back before the Clone Wars, but was abandoned shortly after the war started. But in the past year or so, the current team remodeled the base to resemble something of a miniature Jedi temple.

"Well here we are again. The home of the over-abundant moss." Jo mumbled as Exar placed his hand on a hand scanner, beside the door, to open the door.

Hearing Jo's statement, Aang says, "At least we're not living on Dagobah."

"Truth." Jo replied.

"Okay. If we lose this base, you can choose the next place for us to live. One that will have to be very well-hidden." Exar said.

They had already entered the meeting room where their leaders, Rye, Erickson, and one of Rye's friends, Ephraim, were.

"Oh good, you're back. Do you have _any_ news for us?" Erickson asked.

"Erickson, we already knew they were back. Did you not hear them landing?" Ephraim asked him.

"Obviously not." Erickson replied.

"Anyway, Naboo is off the hook. And we have, like what, only a few more planets left? Mustafar, Jakku, and Tatooine. And I have a feeling we should have checked those first." Aang reported.

"That's a relief," Ephraim said.

"Hey, how are you doing Ephraim?" Exar asked, pleased to see his well-known friend.

"I'm doing well." Ephraim replied.

"If this drags out any longer, the Republic will discover these rumors and take on our task. We'll be restrained and will have to work with the local police." Erickson said.

"They go by their own rules and act on the last second, we take priority and precautions. If we work with them, we won't be able to do everything we might _need_ to do." Rye said.

 _'Now where have I seen that kind of situation before?'_ Jo thought to himself.

"That's why we chose this location. So they won't be able to find- you guys know we've had this conversation before, right?" Ephraim asked.

"Yes, but the readers don't know that nor did they know why we chose this forest base to live in." Jo said, leaving everyone completely bewildered.

"You really need to fix that brain of his." Erickson whispered to Ephraim.

"That wouldn't change his sense of humor." Ephraim replied.

Exar just sighed. "Any further instructions?" He asked.

"No. Same ol' same ol'." Rye said.

"Okay. We'll be down at the shore." Aang said.

The three went down to the shore to relax. Aang and Exar meditated, while Jo wandered. Many minutes of meditation passed, then Exar broke the silence.

"Where did Jo go?" He asked.

"Probably looking for old artifacts again." Aang repled.

Exar shook his head, grinning.

Aang placed his focus on the force again, then at that moment, Aang sensed another being trying to sneak up on him. _'Sorry Joe.'_ Aang thought, right before jumping up into the air and landing on Jo.

"Ow! You _know_ I can't be jumped on." Jo exclaimed.

Then Aang and Exar noticed Joe wearing an old Clone Phase III Kashyyyk Trooper outfit.

"That's a first. Jo, where did you get that?" Exar asked, completely surprised.

"Where else? Buried." Jo said. _'You see, readers, I don't usually find this kind of stuff often. I really don't find_ _ **anything**_ _often.'_

"You think there are more around? Those could sell for a ton. And you could finally buy me a new cape." Exar said.

"Eh, eh-heh. Sure." Jo said, putting on a fake grin.

Exar and Jo started on the topic of buying Exar a cape when Aang had already sat back down and started meditating again. Moments later, Exar and Jo felt a shift in the force, and it was coming from Aang.

"You think he's having a vision?" Jo asked.

"What else could it be?" Exar asked.

A moment passed before Aang woke.

"Aang-" Exar started.

"We need to get to Mustafar." Aang suddenly blurted. Then he stood and started running back up to the base.

...

"I think he's talking about something important." Jo said to Exar.

"Come on!" Aang shouted.

"He was." Exar said.

The trio headed to the platform, where Rye, Erickson, and Ephraim were repairing the Tantive shuttle. Jo delayed for a little bit so he could take off his clone outfit.

"Hey." Aang called, getting Rye's attention. Rye pulled up his goggles and turned to Aang, "We're heading to Mustafar. I think I found something. I don't have time to explain." Aang said quickly, and ran and jumped into his Jedi Class Starfighter. Rye was left confused, and his eyes drifted over to Exar.

"He had a vision." Exar said.

"Oh." Rye replied before getting back to repairing the shuttle. Jo came running by to get to hs ship along with Aang and Exar.

Jo's starfighter was a gray sphere with guns, that really packed a punch, on the bottom.

Exar's looked like a mini Venator Class Cruiser except there was a one-man cockpit where the guns and controls for the ship would be.

The three one-man fighters flew up past the atmosphere into space. Aang and Jo attached the sides of their starfighters to Exar's so all three of them could jump into hyperspace at once.

Moments later, they exited hyperspace into Mustafar's sector and disconnected. The force guided Aang to where it needed the Jedi to be. Exar and Joe followed Aang through the smoky atmosphere, and into an area with, what looked like, unfinished construction. There were three platforms, and more platforms were under construction.

"I find it convenient that there are three platforms for the three of us." Exar said.

"Seems convenient. But why have only two platforms been built here after all these years? There are unfinished platforms in construction." Exar wondered.

"Now now, let's not make this a plot-hole or anything." Jo said, earning him two glares.

They started walking, but were going slowly. They made their way inside, still alert, and looked around.

"All the energy is drained." Jo said.

"All except the lights." Aang added, pointing to some of the lights, placed on the ceiling.

"Aang, what did you see in your vision? I'm not seeing anything." Exar asked.

"But do you _sense_ anything?" Aang asked.

"Um," Exar mumbled, closing his eyes and probing the area."Yes."

Then, an old voice called. "Leeeeeeeeave, Jedi." It said.

"Who's that?" Exar asked the voice.

"No one. Leave. It's not safe here." The voice replied.

'This isn't making any sense. We need answers.' Exar thought before speaking up again, "Not without answers. And don't make me go over there. I can sense your every move."

Only seconds passed before a gray hand reached up and propped its body up on the table.

What the Jedi saw was a bowed head and a torso with some kind of red clothing. But he had a big slice through his body. He then lifted his head, revealing himself to be a neimoidian with yellow eyes.

"I am Nute Gunr-"

 _ **BLAM**_

Aang and Exar both were wide-eyed and open-mouthed, and looking at Jo.

"What? I just had a gut feeling he was completely unnecessary." Jo said.

"You don't **HAVE** a gut!" Exar exclaimed.

"If he was unnecessary, why would anyone bother... bringing him back to life? Especially with a sith-like appearance. If anything, this should confirm that the sith are alive. Only they would be able to do this." Aang said.

"But _why_ would they do this?" Exar asked.

"We can talk about this later with the others." Aang said, walking over and kneeling down in front of the Neimoidian and taking a sample of his blood.

"Here Jo." Aang said, tossing him the vial. Joe took it and placed it in a slot in his arm.

Before Aang got up, he heard the neimoidian mutter a few words.

 _'Ancient... Legend... Resurrected... Save the ga-*cough* galaxy.'_ Then he passed.

Aang was now concerned. "Let's go." He said.

"Woah, what's going on?" Exar asked.

"There may be something **much** bigger at work than sith." Aang said.

"How can you tell?" Jo asked.

"He" Aang pointed to Nute "Muttered the words _ancient_ , _legend_ , and _resurrected_. Then he said that we need to save the galaxy. When you've been around as long as **I** have, and been through as **much** as I have, you couldn't be more certain." Aang said.

"Been through as much? What am I missing?" Exar asked.

"Once, I had to save the galaxy from a, believe me, _**serious**_ tyranny. Well, I helped. Anyway, the tyrant was really loaded with surprises. It took everything we had to defeat him. With a cost, though. Most of what I went through, with some friends, were Inquisitors. Quite a few of them." Aang explained.

"Woah. You _have_ to tell us some stories when we have time." Exar said.

"Wait. Inquisitors? Those guys were practically extinct by the end of the Empire." Jo said.

"So?" Aang asked.

"That means you must be pretty old. Which is crazy, you look like a sixteen year old." Jo said.

"I suppose you'd like to know _how_?" Aang asked.

"Yes. That would help. Exar?" Jo said.

"Sure. I'll tell Rye." Exar said.

"Be _sure_ to tell him that we're having an extended trip. We're going to Kamino." Aang said.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Kamino

"Kamino? Now? I take it you three finished your Mustafar trip already?" Rye asked Exar via hologram.

"Yeah. Aang wants to show us something, and I have a good feeling about it." Exar replied.

"Hate to break it to you, but we need you here for your report." Rye told him.

"Ah, right. I guess *ahem* AANG TOTALLY FORGOT THAT HE HAD TO GIVE A REPORT ON THE TRIP!" Exar exclaimed. He heard Aang facepalm.

"You don't have to yell, I am literally standing behind you." Aang said. Exar turned and saw Aang standing with all four of his arms crossed.

"Oh."

"So you heard me?" Rye asked.

"Yes, sir." Aang replied.

"Good. We'll hear from you shortly." Rye said, then the hologram turned off.

The Jedi got into their fighters, connected them and returned to Kashyyyk.

Aang immediately hopped out before Exar and Jo.

"Jo, the vial." Aang said. Jo pulled it out and handed it to him, and Aang headed inside.

"Come on, the shuttle needs repairing a little bit more." Exar told Jo, then they headed to the shuttle to finish the repairs.

"Do you actually think the sith are alive? Or do you think that encounter on Mustafar was a prank or was set up to strike fear?" Jo asked.

"I certainly hope they aren't. But if it _was_ meant to strike fear, who plotted it out and brought this dude to life? The sith are the only ones capable of resurrecting people. _'Through strength, we get power'_ is what they used to say. I am not immune to the dark side. If the sith are alive, they might be able to tempt me." Exar explained.

"Know that as long as you're with all of us, that won't happen. Have more trust in your friends, and the force." Jo said. "You know, I could use some meditation after this, you know, get our minds off of this subject for a few moments. You?" Jo suggested.

"That'd be nice. But first, You need to remember we gotta go to Kamino. Second, I'm mentally shocked that you of all people want to do something like that, because you hardly _ever_ do anything like that." Exar said.

"Ahhhh. You two are like brothers, I love it." Aang said, out of the blue, and making his teammates jump.

"Let us know you're there. You _know_ I'm jumpy." Exar said, clearly annoyed.

"Then it wouldn't be called eavesdropping. Anyway, I analysed the blood sample I got and, you gotta hear this, it had force genes in it. But a moment into analyzing and they disappeared. Dissipated." Aang said.

"Like I said, _'only a sith could do something like that.'_ " Exar said.

"Well that deepens the mystery. We should hurry to Kamino." Aang suggested.

"Well if we know the sith _are_ alive, do we actually have time for visits?" Exar asked.

"TEAM!" Rye called out.

"Yes?" Exar answered.

"We got a notification that some old technology has been reactivated." Rye said.

"What?" Exar exclaimed, unimpressed, but only shocked a little bit. Rye handed him the notification pad. "Where?" Exar asked, scrolling through.

"Kamino." Rye replied.

"That's convenient." Jo said.

"That's even more a reason to go there." Exar said. "We should get going."

"Agreed." Aang said.

A dark, hooded figure kneeled in front of a hologram right before it activated. The hologram revealed a hood, shadowing a face.

"The master has been troubled. He senses that three Jedi are looking for us, and he requests that you deal with them." The figure on the hologram said.

"As the master wishes. I will not fail." The kneeled one said.

"The Jedi will soon come to an end. All of their peacekeeping will be for nothing." The one on the hologram said. Then the hologram faded.

The three Jedi starfighters exited hyperspace and flew into the Kaminoan atmosphere and had trouble seeing through the rain. Aang and Exar saw Jo flying like a madman.

" _Jo_ , _what are you doing_?" Exar asked him via comm system.

" _Hey_ , _there's a reason I haven't been here before_. _So I wouldn't know how to fly through all this_." Jo replied.

They got close enough to the complex that they could see it.

"Things have barely changed." Aang whispered, somewhat confused.

The Jedi landed and exited their starfighters, then quickly entered the building.

"Is this the area you're familiar with?" Exar asked.

"It is. This way." Aang led them around a few floors and halls. Then as they passed a corner, Jo saw an outlet. "Wait a second." He said.

"What?" Exar asked, almost complaining.

Jo plugged one of his cybernetic fingers into the outlet.

"Oh my."

"What is it?" Aang asked, growing impatient.

"My blog is getting more popular!" Jo exclaimed happily.

"Excuse me?" Exar wondered confusedly.

"Oh, right." Jo said, and downloaded a map of the buildings into his brain.

"Yes!" Jo exclaimed quietly. Jo then took a turn to lead, with Aang's help.

Shortly after, the team arrived in a dimly lit room. The room had tubes, going all over the walls and ceiling; very advanced technology, mainly; and some aspect of a bacta tank. All tubes in the room connected to the tank.

"What's this?" Exar asked.

"It's the machine that 'de-aged' me. I have only used it once." Aang explained.

"This tech is so advanced, yet looks like it hasn't been used in a long time." Exar said.

Jo held a finger up, and continuously tapped his head, then gestured to Exar, "You're good." he said sarcastically, "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

Just then, they heard a small noise that sounded like a machine.

"What is that?" Exar asked.

"Sorry. I had more beans on my tacos than usual." Jo said, rubbing his half-metal stomach.

"No. The noise coming from over... what's a taco?" Exar asked.

"The facility is on." Aang interrupted.

They rushed out of the room and followed the noise they heard, and it lead them straight to the old cloning facility.

"Oh no." Aang exclaimed quietly.

They ran into a hallway with a window and they looked down upon, what they would call, a heart-crushing sight.

"Stormtroopers."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Blood

"Stormtroopers." Aang said, not stuttering.

"The sith are going to start another war. We need to report this _now_." Exar said, starting to rush.

"Shouldn't we at least try to stop the production?" Jo asked.

"For one thing: there is no try. Second: I wouldn't see a point in it. Can you see those troopers?" Exar pointed to a small window, and there, they saw group of at least thirty stormtroopers. " They come from _that_ room." He pointed to a doorway on the wall, "We'd have to go over there in order to stop the could spot us going across that room and have us dead within minutes. We need reinforcements." Exar explained.

Aang followed Exar to get reinforcements, but Jo stayed. He stared at the troopers for a second, then gasped. He pulled out his comm.

"Guys, get back here, you should see this." He said.

Only seconds later, they were back.

"Don't those soldiers look the least bit familiar to you?" Jo asked them. It took them a moment for them to see it.

"Oh." Aang muttered.

 _Beep beep_. Aang picked up his comlink and answered, "Aang, here."

"Hey, it's Rye. We sensed a slight shift in the force just now. Is something up?" He asked.

"Um, yes. The sith is, or are, creating another stormtrooper army. And not only that, these soldiers kinda look like you and Erickson." Aang replied. Then there was a moment of silence.

...

...

" _ **How**_ are we receiving a good signal here?" Jo asked, breaking the silence.

"Quiet, Jo." Exar told him.

"Well, have we ever told you about our descendants?" Rye asked.

"No, not really." Aang replied.

"My wife and I have a son and two daughters. Sam, Rachell, and Norrah. Erickson and _his_ wife have one daughter and one son. Brett and Anna. Brett got a job a while back, but never said where. I guess we know now." Rye explained, obviously worried.

"Well since this is Erickson's son, we'll definitely bring him back." Exar spoke into the comm.

"Erickson will be pleased, and disappointed." Rye said.

"Hey, um, are any of your children force-sensetive?" Jo asked.

"Yes, all are. But luckily, Brett doesn't use it much." Rye replied.

"That is good." Exar said.

"And convenient." Jo added.

"Ok. Thanks for the heads up. We'll get going." Aang said, clipping his comlink to his belt.

The team ran into the next room, which luckily didn't have a window. It was a laboratory.

"Okay guys, see if you can find anything good." Exar said. The team searched the room. Jo was just looking at mechanical stuff and ended up finding blaster prototypes, while Exar and Aang were looking through boxes. They found a small one containing two beakers with blood samples in them. One was under _'Brett'_ and the other was under _'Clone'_.

"Lucky find." Aang said, picking up the two samples and giving them to Joe to hide them in his arms.

"Those really come in handy." Exar said.

"Yep. Let's find Brett." Aang said.

The team entered the next room and found stairs. They heard a strange sound emitting from below the stairway.

"That could be it." Exar said.

They descended on the stairway into a control room. Jo ran over to a control panel and pulled up a holographic 'chart' with stats and information about Brett.

"Not bad. Good fighter, works out, he's fairly young. He'd really make a good soldier. Good choice for one to clone." Exar said.

"Guys, next door." Jo said.

They went through, yet again, _another_ door, and saw a newly produced cloning machine. They saw Brett, asleep somewhat, in a containment tube and another identical one next to it. The Jedi trio sensed a dark-force aura, but not coming from Brett.

They saw Brett start to glow for a minute, then it faded. It reappeared in the other containment tube, and a clone appeared in it. Then the tube descended downwards to a room below it.

"Has technology advanced this much and we never knew?" Exar asked.

"Apparently. Galaxy S8's and 3D printers." Jo replied.

"I do not recognize _this_ kind of tech. I know some of the smartest and people in the galaxy and have never seen anything like this. The most advanced they've seen is the machine I've showed you guys." Aang said. "All I can say is... is that this may be from a different galaxy." Aang stated.

 _'Foreign technology that no one understands. Sounds familiar.'_ Jo thought.

"We need to get him out of there." Exar said.

"On it." Jo said.

He plugged into a control panel, looking for a way to get him out of the tube.

"Dang, this dude has so many followers." Jo stated quietly.

"Jo! Focus!" Aang ordered.

"Okay, okay. Mr. Bossy." Jo replied before hacking into the diagram. _'Got it.'_ He thought. "Well, the only way to get him out of there, that was revealed to me, is to pull him out of there. But I'll have to be _very_ gentle and _very_ careful." Jo told them.

"That is nearly the oppisite of you." Aang said.

Jo slowly started pulling Brett out of the tube, then he just jerked his hand back. Brett was woken when he hit the ground.

" **JO, HOW WAS THAT GENTLE**?" Exar freaked out.

"Exactly." Aang muttered.

"Huh? What! What happened? What did you do?" Brett asked also starting to freak out.

"We, sir, stopped you from doing something that would help start another war." Exar answered, trying to be a smart-alec.

"We'd like to know what _exactly_ you were doing and who told you to do this." Aang said.

"I was doing the master's bidding. If I stopped..." Brett slid his finger across his throat.

"Why would he want to put his finger ac-?" Exar started asking, but was interrupted by Jo.

"Ah! Exar! Don't finish that quote! It'll be too obvious-" Jo said.

"Obvious to what?" Exar asked.

"Nevermind." Jo said.

Aang and Brett were watching them briefly going back and forth. "Charming." Brett said, making Aang chuckle and say, "Proceed with your answer."

"I was kidnapped and forced to do this. I had to tell my dad that I got a job and that I probably wouldn't see him for a while." Brett explained. "I was immediately put to work here." He walked over to the tube and stared. "And was told that if I encountered Jedi, to do _this_." Brett said, right before pushing a button that made the ground tilt from under the Jedi. They slid down into the room holding the stormtroopers. They all turned towards them.

"Oh darn." Exar said.

"Relax. Stormtroopers couldn't hit a sleeping bantha in a herd." Jo said right before he threw a heavy-gravity detonator towards the group. A few ducked, but one directly shot it.

"Ok I take that back." Jo said.

The troopers cocked their blasters and approached them.

Exar pulled out his double-sided blue lightsaber, Jo ignited two orange lightwhips from his mechanical wrists, and Aang pulled out two green and two blue lightsabers.

Then the light show began. Lasers went flying all over and were being deflected back. There were not many open moments to strike, but when there were, they took them. They swung forward and struck down the troops in front of them. The three split up into three different areas of the room so they could take on the split-up troops easily.

As they split up, the stormtroopers whipped out their Z6 Riot Control Batons and charged.

-Aang-

Aang took a stance and clashed with four troopers. Then he twisted around, knocking them off balance, and flipped over them and swung 360 degree lightsaber spin, striking down all the troopers behind and ahead of him. He looked up, face-to-face with one trooper, retracted three of his blades, and poised with the one he had open.

"This should be fun." He said while laughing.

They charged and both did a downward strike, clashing and holding their blades in place. They exchanged a surprising amount of strikes, vastly amusing Aang. They locked blades again, then Aang pulled out another blade and stabbed his shin, making him stumble down. Aang used the force to make him knock over some of the other troopers.

Aang jumped, just as two troopers were charging at him, making them hit each other, and landed beside Exar

"How you holding up?" Exar asked.

"As well as I can be. I haven't done anything like this in years." Aang replied as they both struck down a trooper.

-Exar-

Exar held up as well as Aang did during the fight.

"How you holding up?" He asked as Aang jumped over to him.

"As well as I can be. I haven't done anything like this in years." Aang replied as they both struck down a trooper.

Aang helped Exar fend off a few troops, then jumped back to his spot.

Three troopers charged at Exar, swinging their batons around. Exar held his stance and waited. As they got close enough, Exar jumped over them, slicing one of the batons in half, spinning and stabbing one of the stormtroopers, and using the force to make the other two pass out. Then he got an idea.

"Aang, Jo!" He called out. They turned and looked at him. Jo, without diverting his gaze from Exar, cut some troopers in half with his whips, which was pretty much all he did in this fight.

Exar held up three fingers and they got the message. As the remaining stormtroopers picked up shields that were hanging up on the wall and approached them, the Jedi outstretched their arms and practically slammed them down on the ground, performing a huge force-repulse.

They waited a few moments and the troopers didn't move.

"Well that was fun." Jo said.

"It felt good getting practice back, but I wouldn't call _this_ fun. It's distressful to me, but I have no choice but to do it." Aang said. "But back in the day, I always did it. This _does_ bring back memories."

"Okay, now we should find Brett and bring him back." Exar said.

They hopped up to the floor above and exited the facility, back into the hallways.

"Jo, can you find him?" Aang asked. Jo nodded and went to a plugin and inserted one of his mechanical fingers into it, and accessed the cameras. He now saw what the cameras saw.

Okay, who the force designed an outlet to hack into security systems?" Jo asked aloud.

"No time for this, Jo." Aang said.

"He just went outside. It's not far." Jo said.

The team hurried down a few halls, tracking Brett's force signature to catch him. They found him trying to escape with his C-Wing fighter.

Jo pulled back a part of his cloak, revealing an extra patch of metal on his arm. The patch detached from him, turned itself upright, and revealed itself to be a drone. It flew towards Brett and started firing stun blasts at him.

Brett noticed it when it almost hit him; he pulled out his blaster and started firing back. Exar used the force to hold him still so Joe's drone could stun him.

When it did, Aang used the force to pull him over to them. He had Brett rest over his shoulder so he could call Rye. He took out his comm and opened his channel, waiting for a response.

"Rye here. What news?" Rye asked.

"We caught Brett and stopped the production of cloned stormtroopers." Aang replied.

"That is good. You may have saved the galaxy from another disastrous war." Rye said.

"I wouldn't get my hopes up. The sith don't need an army for a war." Exar said.

"What _would_ they need one for?" Jo asked.

"We'll talk about that when you get back." Rye said.

"Got it. We'll be back in a few." Aang said.

Brett got placed in his C-Wing. Aang and Joe guarded him, waiting for Exar to return with his starfighter. He came around, a few minutes later, with Jo and Aang's fighters connected, and connected Brett's fighter to the bottom of his.

Jo and Aang got in their starfighters and they all sped away from Kamino.

Exar saw that Joe was watching something, and suddenly got curious.

" _What are you doing Jo_?" Exar asked.

" _I placed a small security camera droid in his fighter and am now watching him_." Jo replied.

Moments later, Brett started groaning. He sat up straight and saw that he was in hyperspace. He started freaking out.

"Huh? What? AH! WHERE AM I?! WHAT'S HAPPENING?" He asked aloud.

" _Hey you guys_ , _he's up_." Jo commed the others.

" _Well well_. _Jo_ , _did you plan something in case that happened_?" Exar asked, looking over at the screen Joe had up.

" _I did_." Jo replied. He pressed a button, and a dart came from nowhere and tacked him, making him pass out.

Exar was staring at the screen for a moment, wide-eyed. Then he turned back and faced forward. " _Nice Jo_." he said in a monotone.

Brett woke up, strapped to a table. He looked up and saw the Jedi trio and his dad, Erickson.

"Welcome back, son." Erickson said.

"Um... Hi." Brett replied.

"Before I inform my wife, your _mother_ , I'd like to know why you were making a cloned stormtrooper army." He informed Brett.

"I told your Jedi friends that I can't tell you. I thought that they'd tell you." Brett replied.

"They did." Erickson said with a non-changing expression.

 _'You say 'Jedi friends' as if it's supposed to be an insult_.' Jo thought.

"But something worse will happen if you don't confess." Exar said.

"Woah, woah, calm down. Don't need to threaten him like _that_ " Aang said, a little shocked.

" _Yeeeah_. Show him your true colors, Exar." Jo said, excitedly.

Exar facepalmed, "I meant to the galaxy." He said.

"Oh."

Then Exar reached his hand out and probed Brett's mind.

"You... were forced by a... um... oh! That's not a sith... That... oh no." Exar stopped and stepped back.

"Exar. What did you see?" Erickson asked.

"It _was_ a sith, but wasn't. Not exactly. It's far more powerful. In older days, I often visited an old library. It still stands and is accessible. It contained, might still contain, ancient documents that date back tens of thousands of years. There are some documents that contain information about beings like this. It might contain the answers we need. Let's go." Exar explained, before running off. Aang and Jo followed.

They reached their starfighters, then Rye and Erickson called out, "Team!" The trio turned towards them

"May the force be with you." Rye said.

"You too." Aang replied.

They jumped into their fighters, lifted off, connected, and entered hyperspace. The biggest journey of Exar Sunrider, Aang, and Jo, had just begun.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Library

The Jedi were flying through hyperspace for a _long_ while.

" _Exar_ , _how long does it take to get there_?" Jo asked through the comm system, impatiently.

" _We're going a short way beyond the outer rim_. _It's almost on the other side of the galaxy_. _Lucky for us_ , _we're almost there_."

Minutes passed, then they arrived at an orange planet.

" _Don't tell me that's a desert planet_." Aang said.

" _Not really_. _You remember Atollon_? _It's kinda like that_." Exar replied.

" _Is it really hot there_?" Jo asked.

" _No_. _We'll be safe_." Exar said.

" _Good_. _A happy landing_." Jo said.

" _Um_... _You'll be happy_ _ **to**_ _land_." Exar said.

" _Woah woah_ , _hold up_. _You just said that we'd be safe_." Aang chimed in.

" _From the weather_ , _yes_. _But the weather isn't the only feature of this planet_. _My people here are vicious_ , _warrior-like beasts_." Exar explained.

" _Wait wait wait_. _This is your_ _ **HOME**_?!" Jo freaked out.

" _Yes_. _But don't worry_ , _I have a plan_." Exar told them.

" _Ok_ , _but you really should have told us first_." Aang said.

" _I have my reasons for everything_." Exar said.

Aang looked over at Exar's fighter and saw him staring forward with a slight frown.

The fighters flew down into the atmosphere, speedily and swiftly. Exar pulled up so they could hide in the clouds. They waited for a while, and nothing happened.

" _Is something supposed to happen_?" Aang asked Exar.

" _Supposed to_ , _yes_." He replied.

...

" _Aang_ , _we're gonna need to open our canopies for a second_." Exar said. He opened his canopy and held up, what looked like a blue crystal shard. It was bright, and created a big blue aura that could be seen, lightly reflected on the orange clouds.

Aang opened his canopy and used the force to pull it to him.

" _Is this a kyber crystal_?" Aang asked.

" _No_ , _but believe me we'll need it_. _Here's the plan_ -"

The Jedi flew down to the surface and landed, and _as_ they landed, they saw Zabrak warriors charging and almost falling over themselves.

" _These are_ _ **your**_ _people_?" Aang asked Exar, clearly not impressed, but rather weirded out.

" _Yes_ , _but the warriors I knew were not as idiotic as this_. _And this level of idiocy means only one thing_." Exar replied.

At that moment, the leader of that tribe stepped to the front of the crowd. Aang and Jo exited their cockpits and stood on the nose of their starfighters.

"What do you outsiders want?" The leader asked.

"We need access to your library." Aang replied.

"Only high authority has access to our library." The leader replied back.

"Really? I thought _no one_ had access to it." Aang said, holding up the crystal. The Zabraks started freaking out. The leader rolled his eyes, then turned to them.

" **QUIET**!" He yelled, then turned back to Aang.

"Where did you get that?" The leader asked.

Then, Exar flipped out of his fighter and landed on the nose of his fighter. Then the Zabraks started freaking out again.

' _I really have to do something about these bozos_.' The leader thought, turning to the Zabraks again.

" **SHUT IT**!" He yelled, then turned to Exar.

"Exar Sunrider." He started, "How've _you_ been?" He asked sarcastically.

"Better than I was when I was getting raised here, Heceowa." Exar replied.

"Wow, you've changed in such little time. And don't seem so surprised that I'm now the leader." The current Zabrak leader known as Heceowa Cometfire proclaimed. Heceowa had yellow and black tattoos and had dark-brown armor covering all except his head and hands.

"Change is good. I see you haven't changed a bit. I can still see 'sore loser' in your eyes. And I knew you were leader when we landed. This tribe has your name written all over it." Exar said.

"One does not simply change without changing their traditions." Heceowa said, "After Snoke died, we formed this tribe freely. You were one of our finest."

"Well because _I_ changed, I have become more powerful and am capable of a lot more than you are." Exar said.

"Like what?" Heceowa asked.

"Distracting you." Exar said.

At that moment, Heceowa and his tribe heard doors opening. They turned and saw Aang and Jo entering their castle-like household.

"After them!" Heceowa commanded. The tribe ran after them, yelling.

" **YOU DON'T HAVE TO YELL** , **THEY'LL KNOW YOU'RE** \- oh never mind." Heceowa strained, before turning back to Exar again.

"Let's see if your skills have changed." Heceowa said, igniting his unique lightsaber. It was orange with a black core.

Exar ignited one blade of his double-bladed lightsaber. "Let's." He replied.

 _Meanwhile..._

Aang and Jo sneaked into the Zabrak complexes and started running, trying to find the library and ended up with quite a few guards on their tails.

"What are we going to do Aang? If and when we find the library, we won't be able to put this doodad in place before we get stabbed." Jo motioned towards the increasing number of guards.

Aang looked around. And to his left, he saw a stairway.

"There," He said, pointing to the stairway, "Let's jump down, we'll get a bigger lead."

They turned, then jumped down the stairway. They fell about seven stories before needing to slow down. Aang used the force to break his fall, and Joe used his boot jets to break his.

"It'll take them a while longer to catch us." Jo said. "Those thorn-heads couldn't catch up to a gonk droid."

Right then, they heard gusts of wind. They looked up and saw that the Zabrak guards had dived down towards them.

"And I take it they're force-sensetive." Aang said, then they started running again.

Exar and Heceowa were having a speedy duel. Flashes of black, blue and orange were flying all around them. Then they locked.

"I'm actually impressed." Heceowa said.

"Overused line, but thanks. I have trained under Jedi for years. I am now a master." Exar replied.

"While you're bragging about being all 'Jedi' and stuff, I'm sensing sithiness in you." Heceowa said.

...

"Sithiness?" Exar asked, amused and unimpressed.

"Yeah it's the term I use when-" He saw Exar's face, then stopped. "Oh never mind."

"Anyway, yeah, from your point of view, I'm evil. People on opposite sides seem evil. So yeah, you'd sense the _'dark side'_ in me." Exar pointed out.

"No no, you know exactly what I mean. I sense the dark side hidden, buried within you. You want to let it all out sometimes, but you easily overcome it. I'm impressed." They pushed away.

Heceowa held up one hand and conjured a magik ball.

"Let me help you release it."

Aang and Jo came across and faced a network of paths.

"I have a plan." Jo said.

"You don't have to tell me twice. I think I know what you're thinking." Aang said, pulling up his comlink, "Keep your channel open and we'll meet on the other side."

"I was thinking lunch or something, but your plan works too." Jo said.

"Erickson and I should really try to fix that brain of yours." Aang said as they started running.

"Thought it didn't work that wa-"

"No time. We're splitting up." Aang interrupted him.

As they disappeared from eyesight, the guards came around the corner.

"Men, you know what to do." The leading one said.

They focused and used the force to detect force signatures. When they detected one, they followed it. After a barrage of turns, they ended up in the location they were led to.

"We know you're here. Why not put your skills to the test, huh?" One of them asked.

Aang was hiding in a cave in a wall.

"Jo," he whispered into his comlink, "They're in my area."

"So what? They're no match for you." Jo replied very quietly.

"Where are you!" Aang and Jo heard a Zabrak guard call.

...

"Jo, I can sense your feelings, what are you-"

" **OVER HERE**!" Jo yelled through the comm.

"Darn it Jo." Aang whispered before jumping down.

"Hello boys." He said.

...

"Not greeters huh? Well, let's get to the point." Aang said, drawing out his four lightsabers.

The Zabraks, with their thick, strong staffs, charged at Aang. But at that moment, darts came and hit them in their necks.

"Oh come _on_ Jo, I was in the moment." Aang said.

"And I was in a hurry." Jo said.

"Yeah. Well now, let's find that library." Aang said.

They exited the semi-maze and ended up back in the hallways. They wandered around some more, then stopped cold in their tracks. Literally.

"Do you feel that too?" Aang asked.

"Yes." Jo replied.

"That cold can only mean one thing." Aang stated.

"Yes, winter." Jo said.

"Yeah wint- What? No. When a Jedi feels coldness, a cold shift in the force, that indicates a sith presence. We should hurry." Aang said, then they started speeding through the halls.

"The Jedi _are_ here, on Dathomir II. They are smart, powerful, and dangerous. Sounds like your level of involvement." A Zabrak said to the hologram, projecting the image of a cluster of black smoke with smoky yellow eyes.

"Oh I know they're there. I sensed them from parsecs away. I will be there shortly. Do _not_ let them escape." The mysterious figure on the hologram said.

"They won't." The Zabrak assured.

Aang and Jo found themselves in front of a big, plain door.

"This has to be the library." Aang said.

"I'll say. This door's boring." Jo said.

" **GUYS**!" The team heard Exar call. They turned and saw him running towards them.

"Exar! What happened?" Aang asked.

"And what happened to Hecedora?" Jo asked.

"His name is Hece _owa_. And I disposed of him, shortly after he failed to put a spell on me." Exar said.

"Disposed how?" Aang asked hesitantly.

"I tied him up and lowered him down to the surface below these cliffs." Exar said.

"Nice." Jo whispered.

"Aang, the shard." Exar said. Aang handed him the shard.

Exar used the force to lift it up, above the door, and into a round, circular symbol that was placed above the door. The symbol was blue and looked like it was made from the same kind of crystal Exar had, except it looked like it had a piece taken from it.

Exar pushed the shard into place, then the crystal circle glowed bright.

"Now everyone, push." Exar said, lifting a palm and using the force to open the door. Aang and Joe followed, doing the same.

Slowly, the door started opening. It took a moment before revealing a very glorious sight.

"Now _this_ is one heck of a collection." Jo said, in complete awe.

"Come on guys, I know where we can find answers." Exar said, and they started looking around.

The library was huge. It had many, many rows of shelves that reached stories high. Each section of shelves looked about four and a half meters long. Each shelf was made from a delicate redwood that was very smooth. The only flaw was that the whole place was dusty.

 _'What kind of wood is this?'_ Aang thought. "This place is very resourceful. It's a wonder the government hasn't invaded and taken it all for their own." Aang said.

"Oh they've tried. You should see our dungeon." Exar said, the sentence made Aang shudder.

Exar pulled out a scroll and called the team over.

"It should be in here." Exar said, flipping through pages, followed by him mumbling the contents.

"Aha." He said, then read through it.

"Ok. In the vision I got from Brett, I saw a him communicating with a black mist, one I recognize anywhere. Shortly after the Clone Wars, a new, secret organization was formed. An organization that consisted of dark force sensetives that took capabilities of the force to incredibly powerful, new levels. Aang, you've encountered one of them before. The one that called himself the Fifth Brother. _He_ deserted the organization when the Empire came along. In the organization, there were some who grasped the dark side just like that." He snapped his fingers to emphasise. "And there were some who didn't grasp enough to receive their force powers. Those who did, became very powerful and were trained from there on. The others were not so respected. An example of the power received is... being able to camouflage themselves. For instance, camouflaging as a mist. The one I saw in my vision, I... I know him. His name is Sion II, calls himself Lord Erk. He has been an enemy of mine for a long time... Now that we have information on him, we should get going." Exar explained, then started running off.

"Wait." Aang said, completely frozen.

"What?" Exar asked, going back.

"You mean we're going up against possibly the most powerful sith to have ever existed?" Aang asked.

"Um. Possibly." Exar said.

"We're going to need a lot of steroids." Jo said.

" **Shut it**! **Not now**!" Aang shouted in the heat of the moment, then turned to Exar. " **You've encountered him before. And he's still alive. You** _ **knew**_ **he was alive this whole time! You** _ **knew**_ **the** _ **sith**_ **were alive**!" Aang started getting a bit angry.

...

"Yes." Exar replied. Aang recoiled.

"You... you kept that from us this whole time!" Aang exclaimed.

"I did what I had to do." Exar said.

"How is not telling us the answer to our nearly lifelong wondered question and key to our mission a part of what you had to do?" Aang asked loudly.

"If you guys knew, the news would spread and paranoia would spread, the government would find out and we'd be restrained." Exar said.

" _Our mission_ was to find out if the sith existed, and you've known the answer this whole time. You practically made it a _secret_!" Aang was pretty much yelling at this point.

"Secrets have to be kept for the greater good." Exar said, turning away.

"Who's greater good?" Aang asked.

"Our own." Exar replied.

"Really? Considering the situation you're currently in, I'd say it was for your own. I dare say, because you kept the answer to our mission a secret from everyone, that you're _with_ them!" Aang said.

"I can assure you that I am _not_." Exar said.

"And what do you think the masters will say about this?" Aang asked.

"With how far it's come, this stays between us." Exar said.

"Oh now you're planning on keeping more secrets from _them_? What do you think that says about your dignity, more importantly, your loyalty and allegiance." Aang questioned.

"Any of that of mine doesn't matter as much as our safety does." Exar proclaimed.

"We'd have been safer if we knew about the sith _**sooner**_."

"You can't be optimistic about this. If we were to encounter Erk sooner, we wouldn't have been ready. We would've been dead."

"You don't know that. You know of my experiences in the past."

"You don't know of _his_ experiences. He is more powerful than any of us."

"Exar! It's now because of you that the galaxy is at stake. If you told us about the sith sooner, we may have found out more about him and his plot and possibly delayed it in time for us to advance and _defeat_ _him_!"

"No matter what decisions get made, things always turn out well. Haven't you learned that?"

"Maybe not this time Exar. This may cost us, some of the most powerful protectors of the galaxy, our lives."

"I don't mean to interrupt this cheerful conversation, but... we've got company." Jo butted in.

"We'll finish this later." Aang finished off with Exar.

The team ran to the door and listened, trying to determine how many soldiers were there.

"That sounds like a lot." Aang said.

"Or they just have a lot of legs on each body." Jo said.

"So what do we do?" Aang asked.

"There," Exar pointed to a brick wall on the other side of the library, "We can push through a brick and a chain reaction will follow. We can make our escape from there." Exar said.

"Anything else?" Aang asked.

"No. Not that I remember." Exar replied.

"Good. Let's go." Aang said. Then the team ran to the wall.

Exar pushed a large brick out of place, then, as he said would happen, a chain reaction of falling bricks followed. They ran through and found a stairway, which was outdoors. They ran down for a while, but when they reached the end, Jo grabbed onto Exar and Aang right before they fell down a cliff.

"It's dangerous to play around the cliff, kids. Be careful."

" **I'm decades** _ **older**_ **than you**!" Aang pointed out, rather frustrated.

"And they took _that_ away. Clever." Exar muttered.

"Anything _else_?" Aang asked, crossing all four of his arms.

"No. Joe, fly us up to our fighters." Exar said. Joe complied.

Jo activated his boot jets and flew upward, and the team found themselves at the other end of the complex. Jo flew all the way to the other side. But only to find a black, ominous ship in front of theirs. The ship resembled an M3-A Scyk Fighter, only the wings were lenghtened and sharpened a bit for a more-deadly use. It's black paint coating was very, very dark so it could blend in with space and nighttime. Jo flew down to the platform, dropping Aang and Exar, making them all land in a line. When they landed, they saw the cluster of black smoke.

"Lord Erk." Exar recognized him, immediately.

The smoke formed a human shape, then disappeared, revealing a ninja-like figure.

"Well Xavier, I'm surprised to see you in one person again. And in one piece." Erk said.

"Xavier?" Jo almost laughed.

"Can it, Jo." Exar whispered to Jo, "I'd say the same since you have to reside in smoke." Exar said to Erk.

"Very funny. But bantering isn't what I came here to do." He said.

"I get the picture," Exar said, igniting one side of his double-bladed lightsaber, "Let's dance." He said.

"Ooh, I love dancing." Jo piped up.

" _Can it, Jo_!" Exar exclaimed.

Erk cracked his neck, "This'll be fun." He said. Then he ignited his double-bladed blacksaber.

Then they charged...


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Erk and Exar charged at each other, holding their blades above their heads. When they got close, they swung down and caught their blades in a lock. Aang ran at Erk, but Erk disappeared in his cloud of smoke. Seconds later, he came back up behind Aang and swung down.

Jo tackled Erk before Aang could get struck down. Jo aimed one of his wrists at Erk and small, thin lasers shot out. Erk moved his head, dodging the lasers, then kneed Jo off of him. Recovered, they were already on their feet. In one swift motion, Erk slammed his palms down on the ground, creating a force-lightning repulse that flew in every direction. The Jedi stuck their lightsabers in the ground, deflecting the lightning that came their way.

Jo pulled a small, handy blaster, that he kept for special occasions, shouted " _ **Happy Birthday**_!" then shot at Erk. Erk simply reached his arm out and absorbed the blast. The red glow dissipated from eyesight, the action surprising the Jedi.

"You've _really_ been busy." Erk said.

"Nice of you to notice. We haven't fought in so long that we forgot our usual battle initiation." Exar replied.

"Ah yes. The deciding fight. It requires _just_ you and me." Erk emphasised, looking at Aang and Joe.

Aang got the idea and retracted his lightsabers, then stepped back. Jo did the same.

"Yeah I was taught not to fight ugly people. They have nothing left to lose. And we Jedi are taught to have mercy. That's why we have friends." Jo said. Erk raised a finger at him, as if he was about to reply.

Exar and Erk then sat down and they placed a hand on each others' foreheads, entering their minds.

Exar found himself in the all-too-familiar white, box-like abyss where their deciding fight takes place. It was white all around, and there was only a floor.

He looked around but didn't see Erk.

"Where'd you go?" Exar murmured to himself. Then, multiple colors started appearing everywhere, and started swirling around above him.

"What is _this_?" Exar asked quietly, completely bewildered. He had never seen anything like this before.

Then from the array of colors, Exar saw two big, smoky yellow eyes appear. Then red colors formed the shape of a red lightsaber. Then more was added. Exar then gasped, seeing Erk in possession of the crossguard lightsaber of the former Kylo Ren.

Then Erk, with the crossguard lightsaber, emerged from the colors, which disappeared immediately, and sped down upon Exar.

Erk swung down hard, but Exar already drew out a blade from his lightsaber and blocked the swing. Their battle soon escalated into a fiery duel; their blades were swinging wildly. The blades were flying everywhere: up, down, and sideways. Their fight was going at the highest speed ever seen possible in a lightsaber duel.

Their battle continued for several minutes, no one landing a blow on one another. Their arms were getting weary from their 'arm work'. At one point, Erk gained the upper-hand and kicked Exar down.

But just as Erk was about to strike down Exar, a ghost-like wraith appeared out of nowhere and tackled Erk, snapping both of them back to reality.

When they did, Exar quickly stood and was alert. He looked at Erk and was confused. Exar had never seen Erk so... shaken.

"Given up?" Exar asked.

Erk just retreated to his ship and left.

"What was _that_ about?" Aang asked, stepping up.

"I don't know. But believe me, he didn't cower. There _is_ something _much_ bigger going on. We need to get back." Exar replied.

The Jedi hopped into their starfighters and flew back to Kashyyyk. For a while, no conversation emitted.

"Why didn't that sith destroy our ships when he had the chance?" Jo asked.

"Sith have their reasons for everything... usually. But _that_ , that doesn't make sense to me either." Exar replied.

They landed on the landing platforms and they found Rye, Erickson, and Ephraim waiting for them.

"We sensed a troubling disturbance in the force. What happened?" Rye asked.

"Some strange force-work, and we encountered some enemies from my past." Exar hesitated before continuing, "And a sith."

"Sith?! Do you know anything about him?" Erickson asked.

"Actually, Exar here knows _everything_ about him. He has a _lot_ to explain." Aang said.

"What do you mean?" Rye asked, very concerned.

"Tell them, Exar." Aang said.

"Stop telling me what to do, and no, I don't know _everything_ about him." Exar whispered to Aang. "I do not know _everything_ about him," Exar emphasised sharply, "But the sith we encountered was, and still is, someone _else_ from my past." He explained.

Aang rolled his eyes, "Exar knew the sith was alive this whole time." He said.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Ephraim asked.

"We all have our reasons for everything." Exar said.

"Indeed, we do. But you realize that _we all_ could have dealt with him, right?" Rye pointed out.

"I really doubt it."

"Excuse me?"

"Sith Lord Erk is a master of the dark side of the force. He's the one who knows the _most_ about the force. He is far more poweful than _all_ of us."

"How do you know that?"

"Well, you guys remember the battle ritual the sith and I performed?" Exar asked.

"Yeah." Thay all replied. "But you never told us how they work." Jo added.

"Well, the participants have to picture the place they want to spar in their minds , then they appear and fight there. Our physical forms stay present to others, but the force takes our force-astral forms to the battlefield. Erk and I made ours a while ago, just made an easy, white, never-ending chasm. When a mental battlefield is set, you can't change it. But somehow, pay attention to this, Erk manipulated the cosmic force-energy to mentally alter the battlefield. So now I know they can be altered." Exar explained.

"He manipulated the force?" Erickson asked in complete disbelief.

"That's what I'm saying." Exar said.

...

"Well that does change things." Rye said, not diverting his conversation with Exar. "But you really should have told us about him, first thing."

"He would have defeated us all if we faced him earlier. I was waiting for the right moment, the moment when we got enough Jedi on the team, to strike." Exar said.

"Five Jedi isn't enough?" Rye asked.

"I'm afraid not. You all have told me about your past experiences, and compared to Erk, we won't stand a chance." Exar said.

"My past experiences dealing with several inquisitors doesn't give you hope?" Aang chimed in.

"Inquisitors wouldn't know nearly as much as Erk does. I'm telling you: we, _can't_ , _beat_ , _him_." Exar punctuated each word of the message, hoping to reach a point.

"You can't decide that until we face him." Rye said. He turned away and asked, "You know what I have to do now?"

Exar didn't respond.

"I'm promoting Aang to be the team leader now." Rye finally said. Then he motioned to everyone else, "Come on, we have to discuss this with the senate. Maybe they won't be as hard as we think they might be." He told them.

"Can't say that until it happens." Exar murmured quietly. Rye looked back at him with his eyebrows furrowed, still walking indoors.

Aang walked past Exar and whispered, "This is probably for the best." Then he continued walking.

Then all of a sudden, Jo and Aang started receiving a shortness of breath. Then they found themselves gasping for air. That got Rye, Erickson, and Ephraim's attention. They saw Aang and Jo hovering and choking in the air. Then they saw Exar looking down, and raising his slowly-clenching hand.

"Exar!" Rye called out with a raised voice.

Exar looked up, and the authorities were greeted with misty, green eyes.

"Exar?"

"Exar is gone." The voice came from Exar, but it wasn't his. It sounded like several voices speaking at once. "There is only Mirtis."

"Let them go." Rye commanded.

Mirtis laughed, "Wow! that was predictable."

"Is this?" Rye asked. He reached his hand out and used the force to lower Mirtis's hand. Slowly, Aang and Jo lowered to the ground, receiving air.

Mirtis was being held still.

"Ephraim, Erickson, restrain him." Rye said.

"My limbs are restrained, but my mind is fr-" Mirtis was cut off because Joe knocked him out with a metal arm.

Exar woke up, strapped to a table, seeing everyone around him. Brett was also standing in a corner.

"Exar, would you mind explaining yourself?" Rye asked.

"Well I appear to be strapped to a table." Exar replied. But the serious glare on Rye's face made him think. It took Exar a moment to put the pieces together. "Oh man. It was Heceowa. He cast a spell on me, temporarily." He said.

"You said that he didn't get to you." Aang said

"Yes but I didn't want you guys to know that because I didn't know what you guys would do if you knew I had been tacked with the dark side. And that was an effect of the spell." Exar whispered the last part.

"We'd have done _this_." Jo said.

"Exactly." Exar sighed.

"Exar." Rye called out, getting his attention, "I don't know if you remember everything from whatever happened, but we've demoted you."

Exar slightly looked to the side, then said, "Understood."

"Good."

Erk entered a dark room which lit by a fire that was elevated at a height twice the size he was. He kneeled down, then spoke.

"Sir, I have returned from engaging the Jedi. I couldn't finish them because... there was a complication."

"What complication?" A mechanical voice emitted from the dark.

"I was _about_ to strike down one of the Jedi when I was in a mental force-battle, but then a wraith came from nowhere and knocked me out."

"That's strange." The other voice said before a pause. Then he spoke again, "What did the wraith look like?"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Rye and Ephraim were in a senate meeting in the Galactic Senate building to discuss some urgencies which were mainly the stormtrooper army. They were going to wait to bring up the subject of the sith. They brought Brett along for some evidence.

"We have plenty of reason to believe that someone has secretly been developing an army to raise against the Republic." Rye said, projecting his voice loud and clear.

"An _army_?" Lieutenant Governor Calista Calfan asked, in disbelief .

"Yes," Rye said as Ephraim brought Brett up into view before continuing, "The fugitive used Brett, here, the son of my brother, to start the new stormtrooper army." Rye finished, raising his voice so the senate could hear his emphasis. The senate stirred up.

" **ORDER**!" Calista shouted, quickly quieting the senate down.

"Earlier today, I received a notification of a power surge coming from Kamino. I sent my Jedi team to investigate, and they found the army in production. But they _stopped_ the production before their numbers grew too large." Rye said.

"Did your team take care of the remaining troops?" Corellian Senator Garm Bel Iblis piped up.

"From what they told me, yes." Rye replied.

"It sounds as if you don't completely know." A Yuuzhan Vong called out.

"If you'd like further details, you'll have to talk to my team. In the meantime, I'd like to request some of the Republic army to accompany my team so that they may deal with this matter swiftly." Rye said.

"As inclined as I am to comply, I need to fully know what I might be getting the Republic into, before we take action. Also, you'll need to receive approval from the emperor. For now, I'll send you with a team to Kamino to investigate further." Calista replied.

"Understood."

Rye, Ephraim, and Brett were met out in the hall by Garm. "Master Jedi!" He called, getting their attention. "What exactly is it that your team is getting into?"

Rye looked at Ephraim, who gave him a nod, before answering. "We've been on a quest to either confirm or deny the rumors that the sith exist."

"We believe it _may have_ been a sith who started the army production." Ephraim said.

" _Sith_?" Garm exclaimed, very surprised.

"Yes." Rye said with a slightly lowered voice.

"What have you found out?" Garm asked with some concern and curiosity.

Rye motioned for him to come closer so he wouldn't draw too much attention. "They exist, and they _are_ out there." He whispered. Gram pulled back and stroked his chin

"This news will turn some heads if it gets into the public." He said.

"It won't _settle well_ for me and my team if it gets into the public. The Republic will restrain us from our job and take matters into their own hands. The sith will easily outmaneuver them and the Republic will once again be gone." Rye said, still keeping his voice down.

"Well you have my support." Garm said.

"That's good to know. What kind of support are you offering?"

"Corellia has some of the greatest militia in the galaxy, we'd be honored to help."

"I'll see about it after the investigation, senator." Rye said, before he, Ephraim, and Brett walked off.

Exar was taking some private time, meditating and wondering how long it would take for Heceowa's spell to dissipate if it hadn't already. He pondered these thoughts for a while, then got an idea. Clearing his mind, he focused and contacted Heceowa through the force.

' _Heceowa_.'

' _Well well well_ -'

' _Don't use an overused line_. _That's old_. _I just need to know how long your spell lasts_.'

' _Well wouldn't you like to know_?'

' _I don't have time for sarcasm_. _Tell me how long it lasts_.'

' _Glad to know your personality is still intact_ , _even after all these years being a Jedi_.'

' _Heceowa Cometfire, I will personally fly across the galaxy and destroy your will to live if you don't shut your pie hole and_ -'

' _I get the picture_. _And don't worry_ , _the spell will be gone shortly_.'

' _I certainly hope so_.'

Exar was snapped out of his state of mind as Jo entered the room. "Hey, Erickson's calling us... you look like you're thinking about a girl."

"Huh? Wha-NO! What do you want?" Exar asked, frustrated, making Jo laugh.

"Erickson's calling us to the meeting room for a mission briefing." Jo said.

"I'm coming." Exar replied. He got up and followed Joe to the meeting room. Aang and Erickson were present.

"What's going on?" Exar asked.

"Rye is going on an investigation with some government officials. He left me in _charge_ of this place and told me to tell you guys that you need to finish your original mission. From what Exar has told me, I will request you guys need to head, first, to Tatooine to find out more." Erickson said.

"Um, we already found out that the sith are alive, we need to find out what to do about it." Aang said.

"I know, and we are. You three are going to find this sith and defeat him." Erickson said.

"Yes sir." Aang said, grinning. He and Joe walked off.

"Exar, that's still your team, you need to go with them." Erickson said.

"We won't make it back alive, if we _do_ make it back, we'll be in pieces. We can't beat him." Exar said, hoping to get his point through.

"I sense so much fear in you. You have little faith in your teammates. I know you can defeat him." Erickson said with confidence.

"Optimism won't help."

"You've heard the saying, 'optimism is the faith that leads to achievement'? Nothing can be done without hope and confidence."

"I guess. There is no try, so, I guess we'll fail."

"No. No guessing. Only knowing. You will, or you won't." Erickson said. Exar just nodded and left.

"I know you can do it." Erickson said, quietly. Then he pulled up his comlink and contacted Rye.

"Ok Rye, I'm joining you. I'll be there soon." He said.

"Good." Rye replied.

Exar, Aang, and Joe had just finished refueling their Tantive shuttle, and loaded ammunition into the guns, and were fully prepared for their mission. They entered the shuttle and took off. The trio strapped onto their seats before Exar activated the hyperdrive.

"Coordinates set for Tatooine." Exar said, and they sped off into the stars.

Erickson met Rye with a team of investigators, lead by Calista, by the Galactic Senate building. The team was loading supplies onto their refurbished Tantive Shuttle.

"Brother, I'm glad you could make it. What is our team doing?" Rye asked, starting to get worried.

"Don't worry. They're doing what you told me to tell them to do." Erickson replied with a wink.

"That is good. Thank you for not forgetting." Rye said in complete relief.

"Oh goodness no. Not after _that_ incident." Erickson said with a laugh.

"Anyway, where are they exactly?" Rye asked.

"I don't really know. They're probably still in hyperspace right now. They're going to Tatooine to find out more-" Erickson leaned in close so he could whisper, "about the sith."

"Good, you remembered the details. And I must say I'm impressed with your leadership skills if you were able to convince them to leave the base with no one else attending it. And how did you convince Exar to go on this trip?"

"I will tell you about that later, but now it looks like you're needed." Erickson said, noticing a group of soldiers approaching.

"Master Jedi, we are ready." The leader of the troops said.

"Good." Rye replied. He turned to Erickson and said, "Let's go."

They turned and boarded the shuttle.

"Glad you could make it." Calista said.

"You and me both." Rye said. "Let's get this started."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"I feel the dark side's power growing." Aang said, meditating in the co-pilot seat. Exar, who was piloting the ship, cautiously looked over.

"Or you're just gassy from those bantha beans you ate." Jo said before a dead silence. Jo could feel the others glaring annoyedly at him. "We all do. Is there something we can do about it?" Jo asked.

"We are, Jo." Exar said.

"Not what I meant. We're flying to the graveyard of all things mechanical, really unprepared. And facing possibly the most powerful being in the galaxy." Jo said.

"Man up, Jo." Exar said looking ahead and grinning, yet still disapproving of facing Erk.

"We _are_ prepared." Aang said.

"Really? Because all we have are lightsabers and limited knowledge of the force. Adding to that, we don't have nearly as much training as he has." Joe said.

"We _can_ beat him." Aang said, swerving in his chair to face him.

"Keep telling yourself that." Exar said.

"Exar, you both trained in the same place at the same times. How is he better than you?" Aang asked.

"He's always devoted to what he does. In training, he pretty much memorized everything. But something was wrong with me, I couldn't really focus as much. Erk has the dark side, we don't."

"So turning to the dark side is the only way to beat him?"

"No."

"No? There are more ways?"

"No. It's much more than converting."

"What?"

Exar closed his eyes for a moment, opened them, then spoke. "The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some would consider to be unnatural." The way Exar said that put an uncomfortable chill down Aang's spine.

"How do you learn these things?" Aang asked quietlty.

"There's a lot more to me than a _'struggling Jedi'_." Exar monotoned.

"What does that mean?" Aang asked, giving off a chuckle after Exar seemingly got off topic.

"I've done more than just train in the dark side. But I had trained in the dark side so much that it has lingered inside me ever since I was introduced to it, as an infant."

"That explains a few things." Jo said. Exar and Aang turned and stared at him. Jo put his hands up

"Okay, okay, cool your jets!" He said.

Aang turned and continued talking to Exar, who faced forward again. "You still haven't answered my question."

"I have." Exar insisted.

"Not specifically enough. What did you do to learn those things?"

Exar didn't respond.

"Exar-"

"I can't tell you."

"You're not the leader anymore, you _have_ to tell me."

"Ok, let me get something straight. I don't _have_ to tell _anyone_ , _anything_. There are things that I keep personal for _all_ of our sakes."

...

"How _much_ do you keep from us?"

"We all have our share of secrets. I choose to keep mine."

"Your secrets can help us defeat this sith."

"Woah, woah, hold on! You _want_ to use the dark side?"

"No. We can find ways around it."

"That's just the thing, Aang. We _can't_ find ways around the dark side. You can't defeat it. The light and the dark can't exist without each other. The dark side resides in everyone, and as long as anyone's had an _encounter_ with the dark side, they're vulnerable. Being a part of the organization we were in means being pushed far beyond limits, making the dark side a permanent part of us. I'm sorry Aang, but I have to live with this, and so do you." Exar said.

 _'Little too dramatic for my liking, pal.'_ Jo thought.

Aang meditated as moment of slight devastation and fear passed. Several thoughts, posotive and negative, crossed his mind. Aang was temporarily lost in confusion.

Things were seeming grim for the Jedi, their trust seeming to get lost slowly. Without trust, they would surely fail. Aang did his best to make those thoughts leave his mind, but they kept returning. Why was this happening? The Jedi divided among themselves. Dark thoughts plaguing their minds, except for Jo's. Then, Aang came to a conclusion, putting together some logic and his thought suddenly became a beacon of hope. Aang arose from his chair and spoke his mind, "It all makes sense. The sith find most of their victories through fear and pain, mainly by dividing their enemies. A team, built on hope and trust, easily divided by the dark side, is not a strong team."

"What's your point?" Jo asked.

"The dark side has weakened us, and they can make us weaker. Exar, you've spent too much time dabbling with the dark side, making the team vulnerable to destruction. I've spent too much time being blinded by pride that I couldn't see the darkness growing in _me_. If we're going to defeat the sith, we're going to need more trust in each other. We cannot defeat the sith if we continue to embrace their idol." Aang stated.

Exar gave his statements some thought. After doing so, he set the shuttle on auto-pilot and stood. "The dark side has corroded us long enough." He said, turning to his teammates. "Let's make this official." He added, while giving a slight grin.

The team sat in a circle, gripped each other's arms, and started meditating. Exar focused for a moment, and the team reached Erk through the force.

' _It's been a long time.'_ Erk said first.

 _'Indeed. We're coming for you, so you better be ready.'_ Exar replied.

 _'A showdown is it?'_ Erk said, somewhat interested.

 _'A rematch.'_ Aang corrected.

 _'Ah. Well if you insist, I'l take you up on your offer. Exar, you know where to be.'_ Erk said. Then the connection broke, and the team rose. And just then, the shuttle exited hyperspace, revealing Tatooine.

"Everyone, we've got a date with destiny." Exar said.

"Cliché, Exar. Too cliché." Jo said.

"Being Jedi, I assume you two know how pleased I am to have you come along?" Lieutenant Governor Calista asked Rye and Erickson.

"It doesn't exactly work that way. Using the force, we can tell that people are pleased or not, but we can't tell how much." Erickson replied.

"Well, I am pleased. Just hope my husband doesn't find out about the, ahem, sith, anytime soon." Calista said.

"Your husband?" Erickson wondered, getting curious.

"He isn't very, well no one really is, fond of sith. He... he was scarred." Calista said. Then, she noticed their curious, yet concerned faces.

"Your honor, we've entered the Kamino system." A pilot called from the cockpit.

"Very good. Let's get this done." Calista exclaimed, getting up and heading to the cockpit. Rye and Erickson gave each other a concerned look before following.

As they gazed at Kamino from the cockpit, Rye and Erickson focused and checked for any dark-side force, but only found a trace.

"There's a small trace. If we can make the investigation quick, we can catch him." Rye said.

"Excellent! Proceed." Calista ordered. The pilots advanced the ship until they got into the rainy atmosphere. They slowed the ship down when their screen got clouded and pelted with rain. Erickson closed his eyes and focused. "There's a landing platform near by. Turn left." He said. The pilot turned to the left slightly. "Shift downward." Erickson then said. As they did, they kept going forward.

Seconds later, they saw the platform, but they were headed straight to the edge. "Brace for impact!" Calista shouted. The pilots immediately shifted upwards. They came up alright, but the rear, on the other hand, bumped hard and caught on the edge of the platform, making the front come down and bash itself on the platform. The people inside were jerked around and fell on the floor. The rear ended up detatching from the edge and the ship slided forward.

A moment later, everyone got up. "We need to invent seatbelts already." Erickson muttered. The pilots looked at Erickson, who looked back at them like he didn't give a darn. "I didn't mean _that_ far down." Erickson said. Then everyone exited the shuttle, covering their heads with their hoods.

"Where are the ships that were coming with us?" Rye asked.

"They're guarding the planet of any danger that tries coming in or out. They'll contact us if something comes." Calista replied as they all entered the compound.

"I feel a disturbance in the force." A hooded figure informed Erk via hologram.

"What is it?" Erk asked.

"Republic forces have arrived at Kamino to investigate our _'activities'_ " The figure replied.

"What!" Erk exclaimed.

"The master did not forsee this. If the Jedi alter our course, our fate may be changed." The figure said.

"What should I do?" Erk asked calmly.

"You are expected at Tatooine, so go there. In the meantime, notify the army." The figure said.

"Yes, Master." Erk replied.

The Jedi trio's Tantive shuttle landed on the plain, sandy dune sea of Tatooine. With extra supplies they packed for the trip, the trio exited the shuttle.

"How long is the trip?" Jo asked.

"Far. We'll have to go straight on through the dune sea and into the jundland wastes, going straight into the center of the jundland wastes, into the jundland chasm." Exar said.

"And why can't we just fly there?" Jo asked.

"The fuel tank was damaged and we lost fuel quicker than usual." Aang said.

"Why wasn't it repaired?" Jo asked.

"We just noticed it." Exar replied.

"And how are we going to get out of here?" Jo asked again.

"Aang is going to quickly go to town and get some fuel, while we fix the fuel tank." Exar replied.

"A town?" Jo was now really confused. Exar then pointed, behind their shuttle, to a town about thirty yards away. "Oh we're only in the outskirts." Jo added.

"Yes, we'll be beginning our trip shortly." Exar said, walking back into the ship.

"Okay. Well... W-" Jo started, but Exar interrupted, shouting "Let's fix the fuel tank."

"Right." Jo murmured.

Aang strolled through town, looking for a mechanical store that might have some fuel he could buy. Tatooine, Aang thought, was a nice place. Nice, but really hot. There were all kinds of people and droids everywhere. Small huts made up the town blocks of Mos Eisley. The huts' doors all had semi-dome shaped awnings. Suspicious characters glared from the alleys, while the regular locals resided in the streets. After a minute of observing, Aang found a shop.

As Aang entered the shop, a bell-like ringing sound triggered and a pint-sized Lurmen appeared from behind a counter.

"Oy, what is it?" He asked.

"I am looking for fuel for my ship." Aang replied. The Lurmen looked up at Aang and observed him. His eyes narrowed, identifying him carefully. "Jedi by the look o' ya. Well let's get this over with." He said.

Aang was led to the yard, on the other side of the building, where there were a few tanks of fuel. He saw that each tank was equal in size and held an equal amount of fuel. _'Doesn't seem like a scam'_ He thought, before asking, "How much for a tank?"

"Mmmmmmm, I'll take 100 Republic credits." The Lurmen replied.

"Not too bad." Aang whispered, "I'll take it." He added, handing over a bundle of credits.

"Your service is appreciated." The Lurmen said.

Aang headed back to the shuttle, where Exar and Jo were fixing their fuel tank inside. Aang put two fingers in his mouth and let out a loud whistle, gaining his teammates' attention. They appeared outside the shuttle, spotting the tank.

"Get the fueling tube. We got fuel." Aang said.

"Oh, I thought it was a giant bottle of caf." Jo said sarcastically.

"Very funny, let's get to work." Exar then said.

Rye, Erickson, and Lieutenant-Governor Calista carefully shadowed the complex, her warriors carefully identifying everything worth identifying.

"Do you two know where to go?" Calista asked Rye and Erickson.

"One of our students, in his spare time, gave me a map including directions to where he and his team went. _**I**_ know where to go." Erickson stated proudly.

"Well then, let's see it." Calista said, somewhat impressed. Erickson pulled up a small, disc-shaped hologram projector and activated it, showing a map of the nexus, and a yellow line, trailing the path that Exar, Aang and Jo made.

"Well this seems simple." Rye said.

"You should've heard Jo's report. They went across a chamber with a big window from which those stormtroopers, they spoke of, saw through." Erickson said.

"That shouldn't be a problem. Your team took care of them. Correct?" Calista asked.

"Yes, but recently, the sith have gone unnoticed and done things behind our backs. For instance: starting an army." Rye said.

"What's your point?" Calista asked slowly.

"They could have a fresh new faction waiting for us." Rye said.

"In that case, we need to be ready." Calista replied, waving her warriors over. "Guards, at the ready."

The team entered the next room, and there, they didn't expect what they saw.

"I don't understand. If an army was under production, there ought to have been more than about thirty soldiers." Calista said.

"The sith are on the move. They evacuated the area." Rye said. "Let's see if they left anything behind."

They strided to the next room, which appeared to be an empty laboratory.

"Man, they're thorough." Erickson said, looking around the plain white room.

"They are. Next room." Rye said. The group ran to the next room, which was pretty dark. They saw and descended down a stairway which led into the cloning accomidation where they saw the cloning device, in which Aang described to Erickson. Rye and Erickson sensed no dark-force aura in the machine as the team described.

"They're definitely moved out. Which leaves us with nothing to worry about." Erickson said.

Then Calista's comlink beeped. She picked it from her belt and listened.

"Lieuten- _skshksh-_ we're under atta- _kshkshkshkshksh_ \- can't see them- _kshkshkshkshksh"_ Then it went completely static from there on.

"Had to say that." Erickson muttered.

"Well there's our proof. Let's move, men." Calista said. And they all marched on to battle their enemy.

"Proof? You mean you didn't believe us earlier?" Rye asked.

"I had some doubt." Calista replied.

Rye sighed, then murmured"Well I can only hope our team is having better luck than we are."

"This refueling is taking longer than I thought. I hope Masters Rye and Erickson are having better luck than we are." Exar said.

"Exar, it's only been about a minute." Aang said.

"Yes, but when there are scene cuts like this, it seems like a time skip. It's just context." Jo said.

...

"Jo," Exar struggled to form words for a moment. "I swear you get weirder every day."

"I know." Jo mumbled, grinning.

Exar sighed, then said, "Jo, we can't have 'weird' getting in the way of our mission, it's distracting. I know it's what you do, but we _can't_ afford to be distracted."

"Since when have you gotten distracted by humor?" Jo asked in amuzement.

...

"N-not on important missions like this one." Exar replied.

"Uh huh." Jo said sarcastically, even more amuzed.

"All done!" Aang exclaimed.

"Good, let's go. And Jo, I really mean what I say. Don't be like that when it's unnecessary." Exar said as they boarded the shuttle.

Rye, Erickson, Calista and her soldiers sped through the hallways, ready for attack. They were still getting over some slight shock at the revelation, and at the thought of a possible, new war. The squad were at the entrance of the buildings, staring at the big transport coming down upon them.

"Gentlemen, prepare for battle." Calista eagerly proclaimed.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Exar, Aang, and Jo finally got the the shuttle refueled and were then flying across Tatooine's dune sea. They were all scared and somewhat excited for the event soon to come. Exar still believed that they were all unfit to beat Erk, Aang thought otherwise, and Jo didn't give an opinion, for in the situation the team was in, he just sided with his closest friend's opinion.

The dune sea was big, nothing but sand and a sun as far as their eyes could see. That was all they could see for a little while.

"So where exactly are we going?" Jo asked.

"The middle of the Jundland Waste." Exar replied.

"The middle? What's in the middle?" Aang asked.

"The Jundland Cavity. It's a deep, deep pit that goes down, where the catacombs are. That's where I was trained and raised." Exar explained.

"I thought you grew up on Dathomir II." Jo said.

"Nah. I was born there, but transferred here for training. I trained here, almost as an expert, about eleven years. Being one of the-most-talented, I got my official job over on Dathomir II as a guard. You guys know the rest." Exar said.

"Do we?" Aang asked with suspicion, curiosity, and sarcasm.

"Yes. Don't worry, that was all true." Exar replied, grinning.

"So, to clarify, what is it about the sith that makes him _'so much better'_ than us?" Aang asked.

"To sum it up. He knows a lot more than I do. Remember the conversation we had about my fight with Erk?" Exar asked.

"Um, you mean about the mind battle?" Jo asked.

"He manipulated the force. At least a little." Exar said.

"I'm still having trouble processing that." Aang said, quietly.

"Well with any luck, everything might not be deserted from the place. We might learn a few things later on." Exar stated confidently.

"I like the sound of _that_." Aang said.

Just then, the ship stopped moving, and the team was jerked forward. Exar used his arms to keep his head from hitting the controls, Jo was dazed a little, Aang's four arms were used well to keep him from falling.

"Did we hit a rock pillar?" Jo asked, rubbing his head.

"We couldn't have. I was paying attention." Exar said, getting up.

Aang got up and looked out. He didn't see anything, except that they were on the entrance to the Jundland Wastes. He closed his eyes and probed the area with the force. He sensed organic beings beneath them.

"Guys, I think we disturbed the locals." Aang said.

"Oh, don't tell me." Jo groaned.

Then the ship slowly started descending down.

"Must be a grapple of some kind." Exar said. Then they heard a distinct victory roar.

"Sand-people."

"SAND-PEOPLE! If there are two things Anakin Skywalker and I have in common, it's that we hate sand and sand-people. Basically all sand-related things." Jo said.

Rye, Erickson, and Calista's team were standing on the rainy platform, watching the ships come down upon them. They came down, hovering above the platform. The soldiers pulled up their spear-guns, Calista whipped up her two custom blasters, and Rye and Erickson reached for their lightsabers, but didn't find them.

"Where are our lightsabers?!" Rye asked, starting to panic.

"On our ship." Erickson replied, recognizing his mistake.

"On the other side of the facility." Rye mumbled.

Then the foreign ships' ramps opened up, revealing fresh, new batches of stormtroopers ready for war. Then the blaster-fire started. Rye and Erickson pulled up their guns and their team started firing back.

"Without our lightsabers, we can't do much defense." Rye informed Calista.

"Don't worry! Soldiers!" Calista shouted.

Then her soldiers came up from behind them and placed their one-way shields in front of them.

"This'll do." Erickson said.

The team started approaching the squad of stormtroopers, firing all they had on them. Then as they had stepped a few yards up, stormtroopers started sliding from the roof, behind the Republic team, and fired at the guards in the back, shooting them down. Guards in front of the now-dead ones turned and fired at them.

"Rye!" Erickson called, noticing the back-attack.

"No!" Calista shouted, also noticing the counter-assault.

"We have to get inside, we were not prepared for this much." Rye said.

Guards hovered the shields above their heads and slowly marched inside, but some other stormtroopers dropped straight onto them, toppling them and firing at the others. Erickson shot them down, and he and Rye started shooting at the ones sliding down the roof. Then two of the front-guards were shot down, leaving some of the others wide-open.

A few guards made it inside, while the remaining guarded the Jedi and the Lieutenant Governor. They eventually made it inside and ran, evading the fire.

"Well this is going well." Erickson said.

"It could go a lot better if we had more than just blasters. Where's our ship?" Calista asked.

"On the other side of the facility." Rye replied.

"Well we don't have much time. You Jedi will go get what we need, we'll hold them off." Calista said.

"Um. That's the number-one way to get shot down quickly." Erickson said.

"Well of course we're not going to stay right here. We have no time to argue, go!" Calista commanded, right before Rye and Erickson sped off.

" **Those sand-people are going to tear us apart**!" Jo started panicking.

"Nope, we're getting through this." Exar said. "We just have to let them take us down."

"Face them face-to-face." Aang added to Exar's sentence.

"Not exactly. I want us to go directly to their leader." Exar said.

"And take them on from there?" Jo asked not-so-confidently.

"Yep. It'll be a piece of cake. Those Tusken Raiders are about as bright as tauntauns." Exar said.

"Except tauntauns are clever and somewhat intelligent." Aang said.

"Keyword: somewhat. If you think we can beat a sith, we can totally beat a camp of sand-people." Exar said. Aang nodded in agreement, then he and Exar looked at Jo, waiting for an answer.

"Ehhhhh, it's already a two-of-three vote; a _'no'_ answer wouldn't do any good for me." Jo said.

By that point, the shuttle had already been forced to the ground, and the team herd banging on the walls.

"We should get out now. I don't want this ship wrecked again." Aang said.

"They're going to kill us." Jo said, sternly.

"Actually I don't sense much hostility from them. Let's wait and see what happens." Exar said.

Aang and Exar headed to the ramp -Jo reluctantly followed- and opened the ramp. A group of Tusken Raiders ran in, surrounded the team, and cuffed them. Noticing this new, strange doing, Exar contacted Aang through the force.

 _'These guys take prisoners? They never do that.'_ Exar mentally said.

 _'Well apparently they do. But the questions are 'when did they start?' and 'why?' '_ Aang replied.

 _'Another reason to see their leader. Maybe he has something to do with it.'_ Exar thought.

 _'We'll see.'_ Aang thought.

The team, guarded by six raiders, was placed on a desert skiff for transportation. To the Jedi's misfortune, they went away from the Jundland Wastes.

 _'Or maybe they're going to feed us to a sarlaac.'_ Aang thought to Jo.

 _'Very funny. You're not helping ease my conscience.'_ Jo replied.

Many minutes passed, and all they saw was sand. It was all they saw for a while. It was dark out when they finally saw a camp in the distance. The Jedi were relieved, then as they got closer, the size of the camp grew, and they started losing some hope of being able to get out. The camp was _several_ yards wide and long. Pretty much the size of the base, the Jedi thought.

They were pushed off the skiff and led to the camp, where bunches of Tusken Raiders gathered around, shouting and roaring. The noise alone was enough for Jo to want to break free and escape, but he knew that would probably get them all killed, so he reluctantly and painstakingly stuck to the plan.

The Jedi were pushed into a tent in the middle of the camp, and in the camp were two oddly dressed sand-people -who if not for their regalia, the team wouldn't know they were the leaders- communicating with each other until the Jedi were pushed on their knees.

"So this is the leader?" Exar said, stifling a laugh.

"Don't underestimate them. There's two of them." Aang said.

'It indeed is not a wise thing to do." The leader said loud and clear, shocking the trio. "You are obviously surprised at my speaking your language, well you should know that I was not originally a part of this formerly small Tusken group."

"Then who are you?" Jo asked.

"Where are my manners?" The leader asked, taking off his mask, and revealing a scarred face.

"My name is Jiro Marek. And this is my brother, Galek Marek."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Rye and Erickson reached their end of the complex as Calista and her soldiers were holding off the stormtroopers. Erickson wasn't exactly taking the situation well, as he hadn't dealt with anything like this before. Rye was used to danger, but not at this scale, for neither he nor Erickson had their lightsabers. Erickson could still hear blaster-fire ringing in his ears as screams of danger; Rye, focused yet somewhat shaken, was nostalgic, but not in a good way.

They reached the door to the platform with their ship, only to find Calista and five soldiers running the same way.

"Well what are the odds?" Rye said to himself.

"No one cares about the odds." Erickson whispered to him.

"Well they almost advanced on us, but we got the lead and escaped them. This the right platform?" Calista asked.

"Yes, let's hurry." Rye said, motioning to the ship and opening the door and running out, followed by the rest.

Halfway across the bridge, they heard footsteps, turned and saw stormtroopers. The stormtroopers immediately started shooting and Calista's guards boldly stepped in front of the Jedi and Lieutenant-Governor, activated their shields and blocked all the fire they could.

"Get your stuff! Hurry!" Calista commanded the Jedi, and they scurried onboard.

Rye and Erickson looked all over the ship for their lightsabers, but didn't find them anywhere.

"Where are they?" Rye asked, starting to get annoyed.

"Um. I... may have actually left them at the base." Erickson replied.

...

Rye was not at all pleased, and not very patient to get the current situation over with.

"I should've known. You always forget something. You **know** I only like to use the force **only** when **absolutely** necessary." Rye said.

"Yep." Erickson said, not phased at all.

"Let's get this over with." Rye said, heading back outside. There they saw only two remaining guards in front of Calista, and three dead guards down on the ground. Thinking they had the advantage, the growing number of stormtroopers charged at the Republic group. But that's where they made the wrong move. As the troopers started charging, Rye and Erickson reached their hands out and used all their force-energy they could without tapping into the dark side via fear and anger.

The stormtroopers were frozen in place, then started escalating into the air, then they were thrown into the water to drown. Rye picked up a body of a dead stormtrooper and pulled him onto the ship. Erickson questioningly stared at the body, then at Rye.

"I want to know about the suit." Rye said, Erickson's questioning look obvious to him.

"Ah." Erickson replied. Then Calista and her two remaining guards entered the ship.

"Well there's no doubt an army was in development." Calista said.

"And there's always someone behind it." Rye added.

"But if the army was evacuated, where were the ships the whole time? Were they picked up? If so, then how many ships were there?" Erickson asked. A moment of thought passed among the group.

"We've got to get to the bottom of this. We have to contact our team." Rye said.

" _'Marek'_ as in Galen Marek, the myth?" Jo asked Jiro.

"My father is no myth. He prefers to keep a low profile, due to his past travels and experiences, which would make him a big deal to the First Order." Jiro replied.

"Outdated information you have there. The First Order is dead." Aang said, earning a curious look from Jiro.

"When?" Jiro asked.

"A few years ago." Aang replied.

"Were you and your brother with the Resistance?" Exar asked, but no reply appeared, just Jiro walking outside the tent.

"Forgive my brother, he went through all kinds of bantha crap being here. We _were_ in the Resistance. But during his mission here, his head got hit hard. He can't remember his original mission, and we ended up living here with the Tuskens." Galek spoke up.

"You don't remember the mission either?" Jo asked.

"No. The mission was his alone. He just decided to take me along, but he didn't fill me in on the details." Galek explained.

'Well _we're_ on a mission, one involving galaxy-threatening, and we want to complete it rather than get ourselves brainwashed." Jo said.

"You're Jedi?" Galek asked.

"Yep. But our mission is classified. We really need to get going." Aang said.

"That's gonna be hard. Jiro has gotten slightly, _'unbalanced'_ , over the years, and living with these guys, he's changed and added a few things to their way of living." Galek said.

"Like what?" Exar asked, concerned and suspicious.

Just then, Jiro appeared back in the tent. And something was clearly on his mind. The Jedi turned to him, wondering what fate awaited them. "The council has decided for them to participate in the arena." He said.

"Council? This is getting weirder." Jo mumbled.

"The arena? That's crazy! Jiro, we don' know anything about them." Galek exclaimed.

"We know enough." Jiro said, holding up three datapads with Republic 'wanted' warrants with the faces of the Jedi trio on them. The Jedi gasped. Galek turned and looked at the Jedi. " **Are** you Jedi?" He asked.

"Yes!" Aang replied, "Those are fake. We've done nothing wrong against the Republic. We were sent here by the order of Jedi Rye and Erickson-"  
" **STOP**!" Everyone was silent after Jiro's shout. Jiro kneeled down in front of Aang and stared withh some animus clear in his eyes.

"On... _who's_ order?" Jiro asked.

"Jedi Masters Rye and Erickson." Aang replied. Jiro stood back up and, with some gibberish language the Jedi didn't know, called in three Tusken Guards, who stood them up and took them away.

"Take them to our prison until 0900 tomorrow, then they'll be taken to compete." Jiro said insanely before the guards and Jedi disappeared from his sight. "Then they'll never see the light of day again."

Meanwhile in another tent, some other guards were protecting the Jedi's supplies they had taken most of. The guards then heard a beeping sound coming from a small pocket-bag. They both turned to the bag, then one grabbed it and opened it. They saw a round hologram projector, and it definitely was the source of the beeping. The one holding it ran to report to Jiro. As he got to him, he found Jiro having a slowly heating argument with his brother. He let out a Tusken roar, getting their attenton. Jiro and Galek turned and saw the disc he was holding. Jiro took it and observed it.

"Outside communication." Jiro said, then he allowed the communication to go through. And there, he saw none other than Rye and Erickson, who were obviously shocked at the sight.

"Rye and Erickson. How long has it been?" Jiro asked with gritted teeth.

"Too long Jiro. You'll be glad to hear we haven't found your father yet. What have you done with our team?" Rye replied with not as much venom in his spirit.

"They're locked up. They're participating in a big arena battle tomorrow at 0915, here in the Jundland Wastes. I'm sure you won't want to miss the death of your oh-so-special team." Jiro said.

"Is this an invite?" Rye asked.

"Certainly. Afterwards, why don't you and I go at it once more?" Jiro asked.

"Becasue I am much more powerful than you are. If I fight you, I will _end_ our little conflict." Rye said.

"I take it it's a challenge then? To save your team?" Jiro asked.

"If you want it to be." Rye said.

"Make it 0930 then." Jiro said.

"Don't underestimate us." Rye said right before ending the transmission.

"I'll get our militia ready." Galek said.

"Good. Be thorough. This is the showdown we've been waiting for."

"Don't underestimate us." Rye said right before ending the transmission.

...

"What was that? I've never seen you like that before?" Erickson said.

"You have." Rye corrected, staring forward at Coruscant. Erickson nodded in remembrance.

Noticing Rye and Erickson had some bad blood with the sand-person, Calista softly asked, "Who exactly was that?"

"Jiro. Brother of Galek. Both are sons of legend and myth, Galen Marek. **The** Starkiller." Rye replied.

"You knew Galen Marek?" Calista asked with complete surprise.

"Yes. He grew up as a secret pawn of the First Order. He was betrayed by his master,"

"Snoke?"

"Kind of. The First Order had a secret sith organization absolutelt no one knew about. Not until the fabled Shadowspawn betrayed Galen. Afterwards, Galen exposed them and put an end to the organization shortly after the end of the First Order." Rye explained.

"And about Jiro?" Calista pushed on, getting more curious.

"After that, Galen settled into the Republic and hoped to make the galaxy a safer place. He got married and started a corporation to invent new things. His children grew, and along with them, their interest in Galen's business. One of Galen's projects went awry and it created chaos. No one died, as far as we know, but Galen disappeared and the Republic has been after him ever since. As for his kids, they took his side and defended him whenever any arguments -of which was debated about if Galen was safe or not- came around." Rye explained.

"And I suppose you didn't take his side?" Calista inquired.

"More than that. After Galen disappeared... well, _someone_ had to take his kids in." Rye said.

"What of their mother?" Calista asked.

Rye and Erickson sat, silenced. They hadn't thought of Galen's wife. In fact, they hardly knew her. They didn't know any necessary information. Rye thought that could be a valid reason.

"I don't really know anything about her." Rye replied.

"What about her name?" Calista pushed on.

...

"Juno Eclipse. That's pretty much all we know." Erickson said.

"Well that narrows it down enough." Calista said. Just then, they entered Coruscant's atmosphere. They descendeed down to the surface next to the Senate building, where a welcoming committee awaited them. Rye, Erickson, Calista, and the two remaining guards exited the shuttle and were greeted.

"Lieutenant-Governor." The head of the committee bowed.

"Sir." Calista replied. "My two remaining men may need some medical attention, take care of them. These two Jedi and I will open our case to the Senate. The sith are out there."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

 _ **HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!**_

Exar, Aang, and Jo were all asleep on the stone floor of a deep dungeon. It was approximately twenty feet in diameter, and forty feet in height. The walls were made of gray bricks, which were slowly molding over. No beds were provided. Galek came in and shook them awake. "It's time for you to prepare for your last battle." He said with a monotone.

Exar and Aang stood up and stretched, then noticed Jo wasn't up. Aang and Exar looked at each other.

"You wanna do it?" Exar asked.

"Um... ok." Aang replied quietly. He then leaned down and pressed an 'emergency wake' button which shocked Jo awake, making him stand immediately.

" **I told you guys that you weren't allowed to-** "

*Ahem* Coughed Galek. Jo let out a little laugh, then muttered, "Oh."

"Let's go." Galek said, motioning for them to follow him.

Galek led them down different hallways, eventually leading them to an armory storage.

"We like our gladiator fights to be a little more interesting. Choose your weapons wisely." Galek said.

The room had several selections of swords, armor, and certain shields of a familiar design.

"Republic Mini-Nordoxicon-38 anti-cuncussion shields?" Aang picked one up and observed.

"Who's used those?" Exar asked.

"Elite Galaxy-Protection forces... people like us." Aang said, turning to Exar with a hopeless expression. Then he and Exar started scrounging around for some certain evidence. And they did. They found two lightsabers. None of which were familiar to them. They tried turning them on, but no blade emitted.

"We'd be stupid if we left the Kyber crystals _in_ the lightsabers." Galek said.

"We'll use these." Aang said.

"I suspected as much. And just so you know, your masters will be coming. Just hope they'll make it in time." Galek muttered, turning around and signalling for them to follow him. Outside, they were met with the glare of Jiro. He looked over them and saw the lightsabers in Exar and Aang's hands.

"That's it? Dont say that I'll be impressed with just that, I've heard it already." Jiro said. He and Galek led the trio to a tall and not-too-wide tunnel with a big door.

"Wait here for the doors to open." Jiro said, handing over two kyber crystals -one blue and the other green- and walking away with Galek. Aang and Exar used the force to deconstruct the lightsabers and place their crystals on the crystal mount, and pulled the lightsabers together again.

"This place really looked smaller from outside the camp." Jo said.

Then they heard a loud croud yell, which -of course- were all Tusken Raider yells, which made the team cringe.

"Wait a second, did Galek say _'gladiator'_ " Jo suddenly asked, getting concerned.

Then the doors started opening, and the team simultaneously traipsed outside upon the sand-covered grounds of the huge, circe-shaped arena.

" **Are you kidding me**?" Jo exclaimed.

They were a few yards away from the door and into the field when they heard Jiro's voice coming from a kiosk, where he and Galek were sat down and guarded by four Tuskens.

"Our battle will commense. And fighting these Jedi, are our best ten champions." Jiro said.

"This is a gladiator." Jo said, starting to panic.

The door on the other side of the arena opened, and from there came ten tall, burly, mummy-like Tuskens.

From the booth, Jiro leaned and asked Galek, "You told them this was a gladiator didn't you?"

"Yep."

Then Jiro let out a laugh.

Down at the arena, Aang leaned to Exar and asked, "You have a plan right?"

"Yep. Drop your weapons." He replied, and they complied. Exar turned to Jiro, " **WE'RE NOT INTERESTED IN FIGHTING**! **WE'RE NOT THOSE KIND OF JEDI**!" He said.

"Are you three trying to forfeit?" Jiro asked with clear amusement.

" **What**? **No** , **I was talking about us** ," Exar motioned to himself and Aang, " **Our friend** , _**Jo**_ , **on the other hand**..." Exar and Aang stepped back, letting Jo step forward.

The ten champions started charging forward at the trio. Jo just grinned and reached behind his cloak where he pressed a button. Then all six sections of each of Jo's arms disconnected from his body and floated in the air, revealing themselves to be fast, deadly drones. Eight of the Tuskens ended up being occupied with Jo's biceps and forearms, while two advanced forward. Jo charged back, performing a barrel roll in the air and kicking one in the face, making him recoil backwards. The other stepped back and waited to see what happened. The punched one got up and threw several punches and kicks at him, but Jo ducked and tripped him with his feet, but before the Tusken hit the ground, Jo spun around -keeping momentum- and thrusted his knee up and snapped the champion's back. Jo ran up to the second one, jumped and delivered a hard double kick to his face, knocking him to the ground. Jo charged at the remaining group with pure determination. The twelve drones returned to Jo and he got his arms back, right as a Tusken shot at Jo. As soon as Jo got his arms, he used the force to hold the blast between his hands. Keeping focus, he spun around and used the momentum to throw the blast at the Tusken who shot the blast at him. Just then, Jiro stood and shouted, " _ **STOP**_!" Exar and Aang looked at Jiro with smug looks on their face.

"You will _all_ fight!" Jiro stated, sharply.

"As you wish." Exar replied, mocking a bow and picking up his chosen lightsaber, and thrusting his arm forward, emerging his lightsaber from his sleeve. That nearly set Jiro off.

"Why does he already have a lightsaber?" He asked, turning to his guards, who all shrugged. Jiro turned back and stared on.

Aang pulled up his double-sided blue lightsaber and activated the green one he received recently, then Exar emitted his two blue blades, one of which was another lightsaber given to the team.

"It's clear this isn't a fair fight. Let's _'up'_ the game shall we?" Jiro announced. Just then, the audience started clearing out and Tusken Raiders started running through the doors and charging at the trio. Jo activated his lightwhips and said, "Finally." and charged, his team following behind.

The groups massed together, and the attack started, but ended when the Jedi simply repulsed every soldier backwards and used the force to keep the door closed. But then they were held still, and couldn't move. The doors opened and only a few Tuskens came out, and they held the Jedi down. Then they saw Jiro and Galek approaching with their four guards. And Jiro had his hand outstretched.

"I should've known. Of course you can use the force, being the son of a force-user." Jo said, mumbling the last part.

"Guards, end this. End them." Jiro said as they stopped in front of the Jedi.

A guard stepped up and pulled up his club. He swung upwards, then downwards. Then he turned and knocked Jiro in the face. Galek was about to attack, but another guard knocked him out. Jiro stood and was about to say something, but the guard that attacked him put his hand up, silencing him. Then he removed his mask, revealing the face of Rye. The other guard did the same and revealed Erickson's face.

"How did you infiltrate us?" Jiro asked, ticked off.

"We did it overnight. It was simple, really. You changed things up a bit with sand-people, but should've trained them a bit more." Rye replied. "Now, what was it I said? I would end this? Well let's go."

Just then, Republic ships appeared overhead and blasted the ground around the Jedi, giving them room to escape. The ships swiftly lowered and scooped the Jedi up while shooting at anyone else who attempted to get on. They quickly lifted off and sped away, leaving a malicious look on Jiro's face.

"That was a close call. Thanks for the last-second save." Jo said to Rye and Erickson.

"It's what we masters do." Erickson replied.

"Where's Ephraim?" Exar asked.

"He's helping Calista with her case on the stormtrooper case. _We_ were going to, then we remembered that we had to come here to get you." Rye said.

Then Rye's holoprojector beeped off, and he answered it, and Ephraim appeared there.

"How'd it go Ephraim?" Rye asked with a smile.

"It went well. The Senate is actually considering helping us." Ephraim said.

"Well of course, the Lieutenant-Governor backed you up." Rye replied.

"But she isn't the Chancellor. Anyway, you and Erickson are needed back here for a report on what you've discovered." Ephraim said.

"We'll be there. We've got a heck of a story to tell." Rye said.


	11. Chapter 10 Part 2

Chapter 10 Part 2

 ** _(I couldn't decide which ending to go with.)_**

The sith known as Erk stood in front of a hologram projector, which activated and showed only a familiar face he hadn't seen in a while.

"Jayko. It's been a while hasn't it?" Erk asked.

"It has. I have news for you." Jayko replied. Jayko had a long, yet slightly round scar-less head, and a long nose that indicated he was an adult.

"Tell me." Erk said with slight enthusiasm.

"We found him." Jayko replied, and Erk's face suddenly became serious. "We found Galen Marek."


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

 _ **Author's Note: I have a prequel for this story ready to be posted (It's been ready for a long time); but due to its long (longer than my other stories) length, I will be uploading two chapters a day. (Had to let you know so you wouldn't get confused.)**_

"Merely his location. He's hiding in the Serenno system. We need you to come help search for him, before he decides to do something else."

"I'd like to, but I'm dealing with a bigger threat: three Jedi are looking for me and I have to stop them." Erk replied.

"Very well. When you're finished, meet me at these coordinates." Jayko said as he pressed a button from his end, and sent coordinates to Erk's end.

"Well can't it wait? If we all work together, we can take down the sith." Exar asked.

"I bet we could, but I have complete faith you guys can handle him." Rye replied, trying not to notice the expression on Exar's face.

"You simply need faith, Exar. Without it, Rye and I wouldn't have made it this far in our lives." Erickson added. And that gave Exar some hope.

"Besides, you gre up with Erk, practicing the same stuff as he did. That knowledge with ours can totally beat him." Aang said.

"Like I said before, you'd have to turn to the dark side to be able to perform stuff Erk can." Exar said.

" **If we're leaving the Jedi here, we'll have to drop them** _ **off**_ **here**." The pilot shouted from the cockpit.

"Time to go. We'll keep in contact, and we wish you the best of luck." Rye said as the trio stepped down from the shuttle and turned to Rye and Erickson as they lifted off.

"May the force be with you." Rye added, then the ships flew out of sight, and the Jedi turned and stared into the Jundland Chasm. It was interesting. A different chasm from what the Jedi were familiar with. There was a chasm somewhere else on Tatooine, but Aang and Jo hadn't been to this one. Surrounded by a sand-circle, this chasm was in the middle of the waste, being known only to the surviving ones who trained in the gorge lying directly in the center of the Jundland Wastes.

"Time to kill a sith. Exar, which way?" Aang asked.

"We should only go a mile or so, then we'll be there." Exar replied.

And so the Jedi trio ventured on into the chasm to the center of the wastes. The journey was difficult, for there was mostly rocky terrain as far as the eye could see. They had to help each other climb up and down mounting rock walls, and go across a short sharp-rock field. They mainly had Exar use the force to help lead the way.

"Exar, why do we have to go straight? Why can't we move around some of these obstacles?" Aang asked.

"Much like temples, this chasm is very tricky. If you divert from your path, you'll get lost." Exar replied.

"Like the Bermuda Triangle?" Jo asked.

"Yes, like the- **what is that**?" Exar confusedly asked.

"Not important now. Let's keep going." Aang said, walking forward.

The team shortly reached their destination as soon as they thought they might be lost.

"Guys, welcome to the Jundland Cavity." Exar said.

"So how do we get down there?" Jo asked.

"We jump." Exar said before diving down into the hole.

"What?!" Jo exclaimed.

"You heard him." Aang replied before jumping down, following Exar.

"Why in all the galaxy would I-" Jo cut himself short, then mumbled to himself, "Oh wait. I have boot jets." Then he jumped down. Being pretty much half metal, Jo fell faster than his teammates. He waved at them as he passed by them. A few seconds later, Jo used his boot jets to break his fall, and Aang and Exar outstretched their arms and used the force to break their fall.

"This hole didn't look as deep as it did when we looked down into it." Jo said.

"Indeed. Exar, lead the way." Aang said.

"That would make me feel better if I was actually the leader." Exar said, earning an elbow from Aang. "What? I'm kidding... Kind of."

...

"This way." Exar said

The team was on-guard the whole time, stalking around the orange halls of the catacombs. The walls were a red-orange shade with gray rock ceilings. Columns were carved along the walls from floor to ceiling. There were smooth wood doors in between every two sets of columns.

The team continued stealthily walking through the halls until Exar turned left and went into a door. The team followed him into the room, where Exar was looking all over for something. Then they spotted a shelf along the wall on the other side of the room. Exar opened it up and found a book inside. He gasped and quickly picked it up.

"What is it?" Aang enthusiastically asked.

"You want some information about the force, this book will tell you everything." Exar said, passing the book to Aang.

"But we should keep it hidden until the battle with Erk is over, and at least one of us survives." Exar said.

"We should." Aang agreed, handing Exar the book. Exar put the book back in the drawer.

"But if this is still here..." Exar started, then he exited the room, followed by Aang and Jo.

"What's going on?" Jo called after him.

"If not everything has been evacuated, then we might find some more helpful things here." Exar said as he turned left into another hall and took a right into another room, which looked like an empty weaponry room. The room was square, and was filled with all kinds of racks that used to hold weapons like spears and swords, and chests that used to hold shields and blasters. Straight across the room was a door that might as well be a wall. It was all empty, except for one candlestick-like stand that held a dimly glowing stone on it. Exar stared in amazement.

"What? What the force is this doing here?" Exar questioned.

"Exar! Is that safe?" Aang asked.

"Yeah." Exar answered quietly, soon realizing he probably couldn't be heard. "Yeah. Stones like this gave us Dathomirians special connections to the force and temporarily 'spiked up' our force-powers for a match. But why did this stone, of all things, get left here?

"Was there some kind of rule forbidding the taking of stones like these?" Aang asked.

"That was _very_ straight forward." Jo said.

"Not that I remember, so that still makes me curious." Exar said.

"Oh no one forgot it." A familiar voice called out. Then the source of the voice, none other than Erk, stepped out of the shadows from the dark corner of the room and showed himself. "It was brought back." He added.

"Well you made it." Jo said, putting on a grin and a not-obviously-sarcastic voice. "We were beginning to think you weren't coming."

"Well here I am." Erk replied in the same tone of voice.

"How're we going through with this?" Exar asked.

"We'll do it the traditional way. Fuel on the stones and fight." Erk replied.

"Except you're not getting away." Aang said.

"Oh no one's getting away. Our matches were strict. The winners were taken to Dathomir II and put to service there. But the losers faced the consequences... and were killed." Erk explained.

"So, to the death, then?" Aang asked.

"Yes. Fuel up and we'll see who had the best teacher." Erk said before he disappeared into a black cloud that dissipated.

"Let's go." Exar said sitting down in front of the stone, motioning for the others to do the same. As the three sat down, they closed their eyes and focused on the force, then reached their hands out and touched the stone. Then their heads jerked up and their eyes and mouth started shining. Moments passed, then the glowing faded. The team stood and started feeling confident.

"I feel like I could take on any problem that comes our way." Aang said, failing to suppress a chuckle.

"Well guys. This may be it. What our lives lead up to." Exar said.

"We're totally going to survive this. I can feel it in my veins." Jo said, clenching his fist.

"You don't have veins there." Exar said.

...

"But I do have veins." Jo replied.

"Well then. Shall we begin?" Exar asked.

"Yes." His team replied.

The team turned towards and used the force to open the wall-sized door, and there, they were going to meet their match. And into view, came a roofed arena, where torches were lit every few yards away from each other. And a huge fire-lit chandelier hung above them, lighting up the dark room.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Exar said, almost sarcastically.

Less than a moment passed, then a door on the other side of the arena opened up and revealed Erk. He stepped up and sharp, determined gazes met the eyes of the contenders. The Jedi stepped forward and ignited their lightsabers: Exar's two blue lightsabers; Aang's green lightsaber, along with one of his double-bladed lightsabers; and Jo's two lightwhips. Erk stepped forward and ignited both ends of his black lightsabers. They stared at each other for a moment, then charged at each other.

And so began, a fight that would determine the fate of the galaxy.


	13. Chapter 12

_**Author's Note: I have a prequel for this story ready to be posted (It's been ready for a long time); but due to its long (longer than my other stories) length, I will be uploading two chapters a day. (Had to let you know so you wouldn't get confused.)**_

Chapter 12

Rye and Erickson were meditating in the shuttle, which was flying to a Tatooine spaceport -that their Tantive shuttle, which was their ride to Coruscant, laid- and all was peaceful, until they felt an ice-cold feeling engulfed them both, scaring them awake from their meditation.

"Our team is in danger. We have to turn back and help them" Rye shouted, hoping the pilot would hear him. And he did, because the shuttle immediately turned around and proceded in the direction of the Jundland Wastes.

Lightsabers clashed. Pride aroused. Fear arose. One side of this battle might not be going home alive. Thoughts of doubt, concern, and determnation filled the minds of Exar, Aang, and Jo. The thought that they might lose this battle, and descend the galaxy into chaos -therefore having people blame the Republic, specifically Rye, Erickson, and Ephraim- filled their minds.

Erk used his muscle to push the Jedi away, so he could formulate his next move. Jo jumped up high, with his boot jets, from behind Aang and Exar, and descended towards Erk. Erk swung his lightsaber around, poised, then jumped up at Jo, retaliating his moves. Jo used one of his lightwhips to grab one of Erk's blades and pull down, restraining Erk's blade from hitting him. Jo then kicked him the second before they hit the ground. Erk swung his legs around and tripped Jo from under his feet.

Aang used force-speed to stampede torward Erk, and knocked him over. Erk then realized the strategy of his opponents. They were hoping to have the advantage of switching his adversaries, taking him by surprise. But the Jedi were the ones soon to have the surprise. Aang and Exar charged at Erk, and Erk did the same. As they were about to clash again, Erk dissipated into a cloud of smoke. Aang and Exar froze, then waited for Erk's next move.

Erk then appeared behind Aang and Exar, then force-pushed them away as a diversion. Jo noticed, but was a second too slow to warn them. As Exar and Aang were pushed to the ground, Erk flipped backwards towards Jo, and landed in front of him. At the sudden action, Erk swiftly drew out a blade of his lightsaber and swung down upon Jo, who shielded the attack with his lightsaber-proof backhand. Then Jo swung his other wrist at Erk, while igniting one of his lightwhips, which was also swung at Erk. Erk then rolled out of the way to evade his move.

Erk decided to attempt -and most likely fail- to start to end it by using the force to hold Jo in the air. At the moment where Erk swung down upon Jo, his lightsaber was struck from his hand by a lightsaber that was tossed at him. Erk turned and saw Aang -who was using the force to draw his lightsaber back to him- and Exar running towards him. Erk then used the force to do something the Jedi couldn't quite equate, because afterwards, the ground started shifting and barracades started rising and lowering from the ground in random places and at random times.

"Quite a course you have here." Aang somewhat complimented Exar.

"Heh. Yeah. They used to have guns firing down upon the contenders, to give a live battle feeling to it." Exar said.

Just then, guns started firing down upon the Jedi.

" **Are you kidding me**!? **He reinstalled them**!" Exar said, starting to freak out.

"Well this does have a live battle feel." Aang said as he and Exar ducked behind a barracade to avoid crossfire among Erk, Jo, and the lasers firing from above. Aang ignited both sides of one of his double-bladed lightsabers and held it above them.

"Exar! Reach in my cloak and reach for the two manacle halves." Aang commanded.

"How do you fit manacles in your cloak?" Exar asked loudly.

"Hurry!" Aang pushed, making Exar comply. He pulled out two skinny, metal rings and held it up.

"That's it!" Aang said.

"These are not manacle halves! Manacles are much thicker!" Exar said, handing it to Aang.

"It's the only term I could come up with." Aang said. And with that, he connected them to his lightsaber and it immediately resembled an inquisitor lightsaber. Just then, Jo landed over by them. Aang then pressed a button on the ring and the blades started spinning around, rapidly deflecting the lasers.

"How does that even make sense? Those really aren't manacles." Exar exclaimed, now really confused.

"There's a lot of unrealistic stuff out there, Exar. For instance, lightsabers shouldn't even be able to spin like that. The kyber crystals-" Erk's double-bladed lightsaber came and sliced the barracade in half, going right between Jo and Exar. "The crystals should be up where the lightsaber spins if the blade will stay emitted while being spun. But they're not."

Erk jumped high in the air and landed near the Jedi. He then caught his double-bladed lightsaber and threw it towards them again. They rolled out of the way, but before they could quickly recover, Erk's blade came and sliced Exar across the face, extirpating his right eyeball, knocking him to the ground in pain.

"Exar!" His team shouted, dashing towards Erk, and giving him all they had. Jo was well handling Erk as Aang ran over and checked on Exar, who was slowly standing up.

"How're you doing?" Aang asked.

" **My right eyeball just got scourged**! **How do you expect me to answer**?" Exar shouted, still clearly in pain. Aang got a good, yet terrifying glimpse of his injury. There was a short cut on each side of his eye-socket, and blood was pouring from it. Aang didn't even look towards the ground to see his eyeball.

"Well I meant that in the context of _'are you dead'_?" Aang replied as he and Exar looked at Jo fighting Erk.

"You okay if I leave you off here to help Jo?" Aang asked. Exar hesitantly nodded, and Aang rushed off to fight.

Erk then pushed both Aang and Jo away, then force-sped towards Jo, and swung down.

Aang and Exar gasped loudly with wide eyes.

Jo's more-organic half slowly descended to the ground, while the other more-mechanical half stood straight up, sparking, then slowly breaking down to the ground. Bits of Jo's skin were taken along with his mechanical half of his head. Little blood was shed due to the abundance of technology. Then Erk immediately turned around, conjuring a dark magik ball and launching it towards Aang, knocking him out completely. Then he turned to Exar.

...

Exar was standing, looking at his taken-out teammates, emotions flowing all throughout his mind.

"What're you going to do? I beat your teammates." Erk asked meniacally.

Exar's eyes were closed for a moment. Erk patiently waited for Exar to make a move. Then Exar looked up, opening his eyes. His remaining eye turned completely yellow, no pupil showing, and his eye socket, still temporarily bleeding, started pouring out green mist. Exar tapped into the dark side.

"Hello Erk, you remember me?" Erk recognized the voice-compilation anywhere.

"It's been a while Mirtis. We gonna go at it one last time?" Erk asked.

"Definitely. I'm going to permanently end it this time." Mirtis stated as he drew out both sides of his double-bladed blue lightsaber, held his arms and lightsaber out, and charged forward at Erk. Mirtis harshly swung down, knocking Erk off-balance, and stongly hit Erk with his forearm, knocking him to the ground. Erk was lifted in the air, and Mirtis, lightsaber in hand, slowly, creepily approached Erk, ready to strike him down.

And conveniently, a blast came down -creating a big hole in the ceiling of the arena- and knocked Mirtis out of his dark-side trance. Rye and Erickson came down from a shuttle and picked all three Jedi up. They looked around and saw the sith nowhere, then they borded back on the shuttle. The Jedi masters were horrified at the sight. Jo was in half, Aang was severely unconscious and showed almost no signs of life, and Exar had his right eye severed... and the blast that separated Exar from Erk blew off Exar's right forearm.

The shuttle ascended upwards and flew out of Erk's sight. Erk was watching them as a shadow on a wall, hoping for a moment to strike. But noticing the Jedi masters' strength in the force, he knew he couldn't beat them.

Meanwhile Rye and Erickson, doing what they could, used the force to keep their team alive. Jo, being in half, was hard to keep up with. Aang and Exar's blood was pumping, so there wasn't much to worry about when it came to keeping them alive. The shuttle docked in a Tantive ship, hovering above the ground. Rye and Erickson quickly carried Aang and Jo inside where medics waited for them. Exar regained consciousness and managed to walk.

"Get these three to the med-bay pronto!" Rye commanded.

"Jo has a blueprint of a new cyborg design he'd like to install on himself. Use that. He keeps it in the med-bay." Exar said. His voice was a bit scratchy.

"We'll have to stabilize him and insert him into a bacta tank, first." A doctor replied as Jo and Aang were placed on stretchers.

"Come on, we'll have to give you a new arm and a little upgrade." Another doctor said, guiding Exar along with his team.

Rye and Erickson could only watch as their team was making it safely. They were still distraught at the recent happenings, yet relieved with the outcome.

"Well. I guess we know what we need to do now huh?" Erickson asked.

"Yeah. We can't let our team face this sith by themselves anymore. Exar was right. They couldn't beat him." Rye said.

"But hey, they're still alive, we're still alive. Things could be worse." Erickson said.

"They could be. With this experience, we know what we can do to stop a new war era from coming. The sith is going to get what's coming to him." Rye said.

"Well it looks like things are slightly turning out alright, already." Erickson said as he and Rye looked forward in hope.


	14. Chapter 12 Part 2

Chapter 12 Part 2

 _ **Author's Note: I have a prequel for this story ready to be posted (It's been ready for a long time); but due to its long (longer than my other stories) length, I will be uploading two chapters a day. (Had to let you know so you wouldn't get confused.)**_

Erk was flying his nearly camouflaged shuttle through deep space. As Erk came to a halt, a Star Destroyer emerged from hyperspace, and Erk boarded his ship there. Erk exited his ship and was greeted by an armada of stormtroopers, and none other than his long-time friend Jayko. Except Jayko, this time, wore a chrome stormtrooper helmet under his hood, and had Mandalorian-Iron stormtrooper armor, with a cape flowing behind his back.

"How'd the mission go?" Jayko asked as he and Erk started walking on from the hangar bay to the bridge.

"It went well, somewhat. I've immensely injured them. One of them is very fallable to the dark side, while the others, I have left close-to-death." Erk said.

"Impressive that you can take on three Jedi by yourself. And what of the dark one you mentioned? Did you make him suffer?" Jayko asked.

"He witnessed his friends' fall shortly after I scourged an eye. He tapped into his dark-side self and nearly beat me. Then their masters saved them." Erk said.

"Well this is most unfortunate. I sense that you will receive another chance to defeat them. But if you don't, I'll have to get involved." Jayko said.

"And if you don't succeed?" Erk asked.

"The master does not tolerate failure. I strive for success, and have rarely lost a fight with any Jedi. If I lose, we will need some reinforcements." Jayko said.

"I know a few people that will do just the trick.' Erk said.

"Patience, my friend. You will get your chance. Just remember: take them on alone once more, to show your skill, then we'll see how we'll advance from there on." Jayko said.

"Everything is going as the master planned." Erk finished.

 _ **TO BE CONTINUED...**_

 _ **IN "YOUTH WARS PART II: ASHES OF THE EMPIRE"**_


	15. News

News

I will be uploading the Youth Wars prequel tomorrow, once I finish uploading to Archive of Our Own.


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